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 […]
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 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 […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part III)
Gathering Wheat from the Mountain Slopes
Rud still did not know what adverse effects that event would bring upon the lives of the people of Sialk and the inhabitants of other Iranian towns, including the people of Giyan. The first harmful consequence of the lake’s desiccation was that the people of Sialk were plagued by insects—especially mosquitoes. Those insects not only robbed people of peace during the day but would not let them sleep at night. In Sialk everyone suffered from mosquitoes; anyone wishing to avoid their stings went to the fire-house, for people imagined that mosquitoes were afraid of fire. Around the fire-house no mosquitoes were found—even though there was no fire burning there. By innate intelligence, the Iran-ban realized that what kept mosquitoes away from the fire-house was smoke, not fire. She therefore ordered people to kindle fires in their homes so that the smoke would drive the mosquitoes away, and the people, following […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part II)
Drying of the Central Iranian Lake
The earth kept trembling, the birds and the forest animals fled, and the lake churned as great, towering waves crashed against the hills. The Iran-ban shouted for everyone to reach the hilltops and lift their children upward. When the people of Sialk gathered atop the hill, they were so terrified they nearly collapsed. The ground had stilled, but the darkness was like night, and the lake’s waves assaulted the shores with such force that their roar nearly deafened the inhabitants of Sialk. Until that day, no one had seen such a tempest on the lake, and the waves destroyed a number of houses with everything in them. People asked Rud what had happened and why the lake and sky had turned their wrath upon them, but she could not give her followers a convincing answer. When the sun set and absolute darkness took hold everywhere, the hills began to quake. […]
A Great Catastrophe in Iran’s Paradise (Part I)
Centaur Painted on the Ancient Vase
On the day Zab mounted the horse in that city and rode from one side to the other, the mouths of Giyan’s people fell open in astonishment; for until that day they had not seen a creature whose upper part resembled a human yet had four long limbs and could run swiftly—in truth, they imagined Zab, mounted on the horse, to be joined to the animal. As Mazun related to Rud, in the city of Giyan there lived a number of wood-carvers who, with stone chisels, incised various figures on wood—especially the forms of animals—and the sight of Zab so amazed them that several resolved to depict that animal with their stone tools; thus, for the first time in the world, a creature (on wood) came into being whose upper torso resembled a human and whose lower half resembled a horse!¹ When Zab returned from the city of Giyan, news […]
The Reign of Rud and the Age of Inventions and Discoveries (Part III)
Rud & Mazun at the Potter’s Wheel (Workshop Study)
From the day the crowing of the rooster was first heard in Sialk, when Rud was seen beneath the olive trees on the slope of the hill by the lake, two great changes took place in the life of her people. The first was that they began to use a creature called Aspa — meaning “slow-footed” — to carry loads and travel from one place to another.The second was that they brought a short-bodied animal, the sheep, down from the mountains and began to raise it in Sialk. When the sheep were brought, Rud said to the people:“All living creatures, like human beings, are male and female. If you wish the number of a species to increase, its males and females must live together.” From then on, the people of Sialk, in addition to mares, also kept rams and ewes so that their kind might multiply.And since Sialk was connected […]
The Reign of Rud and the Age of Inventions and Discoveries (Part II)
Offering Fire to the Turs
After several years of Rud’s reign had passed, she gave birth to a daughter — her second child — and was overjoyed, knowing that after her death the girl would succeed her, just as she herself had succeeded her mother-in-law. At the very time of Rud’s childbirth, sad news came from the south of the lake: dark-haired, dark-eyed men and women had attacked a settlement on the southern shore, killing three men and two women before fleeing. Until that day, such a thing had never occurred in the land of Iran. No man had ever attacked another man, nor woman another woman, for there had been no cause for violence. Food was so abundant that even if all the people of Iran had gathered in one place, they would not have suffered hunger. They lived on the meat of deer, ducks, fish, and cattle. Agriculture had not yet begun, so […]
The Reign of Rud and the Age of Inventions and Discoveries (Part I)
The Reign of Rud and the Age of Inventions and Discoveries
Iran-ban was ill for fifteen days, and on the fifteenth day she bade farewell to life. At the very hour that the woman passed away, the people of the city of Sialk, by unanimous consent, declared her daughter-in-law Rud to be their new Iran-ban (ruler). Iran-ban died at sunset. The next morning her body was carried out of the city, and after travelling about one farsakh, they reached a mound called Gom.On that mound they laid the body so that her face turned eastward—toward the rising sun. All the inhabitants of Sialk were present that day, standing upon the mound of Gom, bidding farewell to Iran-ban. “Gam” was a mound especially reserved for the dead, and from this word comes the Persian gham and ghamgin (“sorrow,” “sorrowful”).(Ref: Mohl) Zab, the son of Iran-ban, knew that after some time nothing would remain of his mother’s body but bones. Being her nearest […]