Rudab encouraged other women to build skiffs, and they too learned from the queen of Iran the craft of making skiffs and then small boats, and they put out to sea in their own skiffs.
Iranian women learned the art of seafaring on a sea that in ancient times was one of the stormiest lakes in the world, and even now the Caspian Sea is the stormiest lake in the world.
Because they constantly sailed on a sea with great waves, they gained insight into seamanship. They realized that, along the Caspian coast, the dangerous zone is the zone connected to the shore; if they avoided sailing there and kept a little distance from it—and thus from the land—the water would be without turbulence and one could sail with ease.
They were also the ones who understood that, for seafaring on the Caspian, the most dangerous areas are river mouths; prudence dictates that one should never cross at a point where a river empties into the sea. Rather, upon reaching a river mouth, one should move away from it and draw somewhat toward the middle of the sea in order to pass it.
As they traveled along the Caspian shores, Iranian women came to know the various sea creatures, and the first ichthyologists in the world were Iranian women.
The Greeks have claimed this for themselves as well, saying that Greek women who built skiffs and went on sea voyages learned the kinds of fish and even took the image of a woman whose lower half is a fish from their own depictions.
We know there are certain traditions that are similar among most ancient peoples, and nearly all of those traditions were taken from the Iranians.
Peoples who came to self-awareness after the Iranians and acquired civilization, so as not to fall behind the Iranians in terms of glorious historical precedents, incorporated Iranian traditions into their own histories; hence life-stories and traditions of Iranian origin appear in the histories or national legends of other peoples—among them, shipbuilding by women and the identification of fish species by ladies.
Rudab observed that large sea birds, when flying low over the water, spread their wings and no longer beat them, yet the wind carries them along.
Observing the way those birds flew over the water gave rise in the queen of Iran’s mind to the idea of using a “sail.” She thought that if one could place something on a skiff like the wings of sea birds that catches the wind, one could set the skiff in motion on the water; the first experiment Rudab made proved so useful that sailing soon became common among women for seafaring.
However, once the sail replaced the oar for propelling the skiff, the women realized they had to learn a new craft—the craft of using sails. They had to know how to raise a sail and how to lower it when the sea grew rough.
The use of sails made the sea journeys of Iranian women easier, because they no longer rowed and did not grow weary. Previously, becoming tired from rowing, they could not cover long distances; but after sailing became common, they no longer felt fatigue and could travel great distances—without moving far from the coast. Two things kept the women from going far out to sea: first, they had no rudder and their skiffs were rudderless; with a long oar braced against the bottom they kept the skiff on course, and if they went far from shore the sea grew too deep for their oar to reach the bottom. Second, on days and nights when the sky was overcast they could not navigate by direction, though they knew the stars; simple astronomy—knowing only the positions of stars in the sky—was among the ancient sciences of the Iranians.¹ But when they kept the shoreline in view, not only did their oar reach the seabed to steer the skiff, they were also sure they would not get lost.
Using sails—which greatly reduced the toil of seafaring—the women of Iran proceeded along the Caspian, hugging the coast; as night fell, they drew the skiff toward the shore and either hauled it onto dry land or tied it to something so the waves would not carry it off, slept on the shore, and set out again the next day. They had no worries about provisions, for along the Caspian shore fish, ducks, and other edible sea birds were so abundant that they never suffered a day of shortage.
There was also fresh water in the rivers and springs; they filled their jars with that water, set them in the skiff, and drank whenever they grew thirsty.
They went along the Caspian coast toward the north and, without losing sight of the shore, turned south, and eventually reached their homeland—what is today Gorgan and part of Mazandaran—and realized that the sea beside which they lived is circular.
We cannot know what those Iranian women travelers told their compatriots after returning from their long journey around the Caspian, in what words they described their observations, and what longing their accounts aroused in others to go and see the places the ladies had seen.
The Iranians lived happily on the Caspian coast; one can say they found the paradise they had lost in Sialk.
Living by the sea—the healthiest of places—eating nourishing foods, and constant labor had turned the coastal Iranians into a strong and comely community.
The strong and intelligent women of Iran raised children each of whom, upon growing up, was worthy of being called a champion.
By day, in Iranian society, nothing was heard but the peal of cheerful laughter, the sound of tools at work, and the lowing of cattle and other domestic animals.
Life was so blessed and the means of living so abundant that there was no cause for bitterness, and no one envied another, for everyone could obtain what others had; no one set out to violate another’s rights, for they felt no want that would drive them to trample someone else’s due.
The honesty, rectitude, and purity of the Iranians—acknowledged by all historians, even hostile ones—was the heritage of the Iranians’ life in that era; otherwise, in an environment lacking resources or where resources were scarce and people could not use nature’s gifts sufficiently to meet their needs, it is unlikely that truthfulness, trustworthiness, and chastity would arise.
Alas, once again a sudden danger threatened the Iranians’ happy life and turned the water of ease bitter in their mouths; we shall speak of that danger in the pages to come.
If we say that humankind arose in a single place and from there went to other places, we would have to ignore and deny part of historical reality; for if humans had arisen in one place and then gone elsewhere, certain historical facts would not have occurred, since high mountains and great oceans would have prevented people from passing from one continent to another.
Moreover, human races are so diverse that we must acknowledge they had different origins; contrary to what people suppose, the most beautiful human race is not the white race but the black race of southern Sudan, and unless one sees the tall, slender black men and women of southern Sudan, one does not understand why the black race is more beautiful.
Between the Iranian race—which lived in Sialk and then in Zabolestan and Khorasan and later on the southeastern shore of the Caspian—and the “Turanian” race that attacked in Zabolestan, and the race that, from the north, attacked the Iranians on the southeastern Caspian shore, there were palpable differences; sound reason does not accept that the Iranians and those races had a single origin.
At the height of the civilization of Astarabad and Mazandaran, the Iranians living there were attacked by a people different from the Turanians.
The bodies of the Turanians who attacked the Iranians in Zabolestan were covered with hair, but those who attacked from the north into Astarabad and Mazandaran were not covered with hair.
They were so short one might think them children, yet they had broad shoulders, and each held a cudgel in his hand.
An Iranian man of Tem’s type could grapple with twenty of those short folk and overcome them, but they were so numerous that no matter how many were killed, they could not be subdued. They wore not a stitch of clothing and were completely naked, and when they spoke a sound like the roar of beasts came from their mouths.
No one knew where they lived, or how, in winter’s cold, they survived with naked bodies; for after they began their assault it became clear they knew nothing of fire, and perhaps they saw fire for the first time on the southeastern Caspian shore.
The assault by the men and women from the north occurred in summer; and because they had come from the north, and the people of Astarabad and Mazandaran called the north “Oz,” they gave that tribe the name “Oz.”
Rudab and the other women, like the men, took up arms to fight the invaders and killed as many as they could; but there were too many Oz to slaughter them all.
In the end Rudab told the Iranians: if we remain here we will be killed, for the number of Oz is so great that we cannot drive them away; we must vacate this place and go to the mountains. Since it is now summer we can live in the mountains; before winter arrives, if the Oz have not left, we will not build houses.
The Iranians drove their domestic animals ahead, took whatever could be carried, and set out toward the mountains lying (and still lying) south of the Caspian shore.
After occupying the Iranians’ land, the Oz did not leave, having found houses, fire, and provisions there. When Rudab realized that the Oz had settled by the Caspian and did not intend to depart, she ordered the Iranians to build houses in the mountains.
The mountains south of the Caspian, on the seaward side, were wooded; the Iranians felled trees and, with wood, stone, and clay, built houses in the mountains so they would be safe from winter’s piercing cold and could protect their domestic animals from the chill.
Although Rudab had counseled the Iranians to be foresighted, in that first winter spent in the mountains they suffered greatly for lack of provisions and learned by experience that they must store food for the winter.
In the mountains, unlike on the Caspian coast, fish and sea birds were not plentiful enough for them to eat at will. In winter, after snow covered everything, mountain game could not be found, and the Iranians were compelled to fill their bellies with the meat of domestic animals.
From then on a new phase began in Iranian life—the phase of “mountain-dwelling.”
Up to that time the Iranians had been a people of the plains; although they roamed the mountains, learned about some animals there and later domesticated them, and obtained some plants there—including medicinal plants—their permanent dwelling was not in the mountains. They would go to the mountains for outings, for discovering new things, or for hunting, but they returned to their homes on the plain.
Perhaps, had Rudab foreseen that the Oz would not leave the Caspian shore, she would have ordered the Iranians to go to Khorasan; but she supposed the Oz would withdraw and the Iranians would be able to return to the Caspian coast and resume their former life.
After winter passed and spring arrived, the mountain animals that had vanished became plentiful, and life grew easier for the Iranians. Rudab said that people should sow wheat on the soft earthen slopes of the mountains—and so they did.
Thereafter, the characteristics of mountain life began for the Iranians: they realized that in the mountains there are slopes where, in winter, grass grows, to which they could drive their herbivores; and they realized that since they spend part of the year in warm regions (in qishlāq, winter quarters), they could cultivate in two places—one in the yeylāq (summer pastures) and one in the qishlāq.
The first time the Iranians became a mountain-dwelling people was, under Rudab’s leadership, in the wooded mountains of Astarabad and Mazandaran; in dry, treeless mountains, mountain life for the Iranians at the dawn of civilization was not possible.
Today, humanity, having gained experience of life in highlands, can live even in dry, treeless mountains—since even there are places which, in addition to water, have pasture, where mountain folk can graze their herds. But at the dawn of civilization, the Iranians’ experience of mountain life was not such that they could continue life on a treeless mountain and provide fodder and provisions for their livestock and themselves.
The innovators of mountain life in Iran are the very Iranians who migrated to the mountains south of the Caspian; gradually, through various events, other groups of Iranians also took refuge in the mountains—even dry ones—and made the highlands their home. Otherwise, at the beginning, dwelling in the mountains was not out of preference but from compulsion.
-
“The ancient Iranians, before they knew themselves, knew the stars.” — William Nanki, English Iranologist. (Reiterating the citation given in this section)
