Africa First Project

Nilotic mosaic originally found in the Via Nazionale in Rome. Dating to the 1st century BCE and shows crocodiles being crowned with wreaths of flowers.

The Kargaly/Wusun diadem 2nd C. BCE - 2nd C. CE. Note, Katheryn's article below is much longer and has more info, I just took snips of what I found most interesting. It can be found online.

"According to Chinese archaeologists, the excavated skeletal remains presumed to be Wusun are of the short-headed Europoid Central Asian interfluvial type (Mallory Mair 2000: 93-94). On the basis of six skulls from the last centuries BC/first centuries AD found in Semirechye and presumed to be those of the Wusun, Soviet archaeologists have described them as ranging from primarily Europoid with some Mongoloid admixture to pure Europeans (Mallory Mair 2000: 93-94). Evidence from ancient Chinese texts is contradictory about the appearance of these peoples and only DNA and other types of scientific testing will bring clarity to this issue.

Although gold artefacts and inlay can be found dating from the Late Neolithic through to the Bronze Age in China, it was most prevalent in its borderlands (Bunker 1993: 27-46) until the Qin and Han, when it found preference on a broader scale.

In addition, the lost-wax lost-textile casting technology was developed and used (Bunker 1988: 222-27) in the area adjacent to the very tombs from where the iconography and style of the diadem hails. Observations about the inlay technology used on the diadem are important clues as well. Inlay appeared on Chinese-produced objects almost exclusively where a cell was created into which the stone was placed and adhered with some fixative (Bunker 1993). This is not the technique used to produce the diadem, where the gold was hammered into a matrix-template, then engraved (or chased) on the surface. Many of the cells for inlay were created in the hammering process and after the stones were in place, secured by hammering the bezels surrounding each stone. In addition, there were pierced cells filled from behind with stone and secured with the addition of a gold sheet adhered behind the stone. Items produced using such techniques would probably not have been created in Chinese foundries.

Moreover, gold animal plaques known from earlier Xiongnu tombs (third century BC) use inlay to enhance the natural conformation of the beasts (Figure 5). By placing inlays at the points of movement such as at the haunches of quadrupeds or at the wing joints of birds, the potential of movement and thereby the power of these wild creatures is underscored. Inlays also mark such features as eyes. On the Kargaly diadem, however, circular inlays are used decoratively as a patterned design, still often at the haunches, but also throughout the clouds. They no longer emphasize the natural form or movement of the animals or the clouds, but create an overall pattern. This recommends a later date for the diadem, perhaps late first or second century AD.

But why would such models be used in south-eastern Kazakhstan at this time? This is a unique piece—its style and iconography were nor known before or after in the region. The models for the iconography were taken from types known near Han imperial military outposts in a place where the Chinese hoped their troops could contain barbarian incursions and where peace and stability were difficult to maintain. Those units often included conscripts whose allegiance was opportunistic. The models for diadems (Stark 2012: 134) or for applications to adorn carts or clothing come from further west.

So, was this piece made in the Western Regions, in the territory beyond the Jade Gate of the Great Wall (in present day Gansu) that marked the boundary of Han hegemony, and then carried west? Was it perhaps made as a gift for an embassy to present to a Wusun or Yuezhi leader far outside of Han territory, such as in Wusun? Or, alternatively, was it carried by a regional princess to her place of exile and burial as the partner of one of those 'foreign' leaders?"

-Katheryn Linduff, Immortals in a foreign land: the Kargaly diadem. 2014, Antiquity, Vol 88, issue 339

Stalin in Ottoman Anatolia: his Spiritual, Religious and Historical Quests

The Mithraic Trajectory of an Unknown Transcendentalist

Сталин в Османской Анатолии: его духовные, религиозные и исторические искания

Митраистская траектория неизвестного трансценденталиста

Table of Contents

I. The erroneous perception of Stalin among most people today

II. The erroneous perception of WW II by average people today

III. The true Yalta Conference

IV. The Big Game never ended

V. Good intentions and evil purposes

VI. Roosevelt & Stalin: like Abraham Lincoln & Alexander II

VII. The real, hidden Stalin: an experienced mystic

VIII. A Turkish ambassador speaks about Stalin living in Artvin and Istanbul

IX. Stalin in Ottoman Anatolia: 1911-1912

X. Turkish statesman Rıza Nur noted that Stalin understood Turkish

XI. Stalin's cultural background: distorted & unknown to most

XII. The Mithraic Iranian cultural heritage of Georgia & Stalin

XIII. The long, heavy shadow of the Sassanids

XIV. An indelible stamp on Islam: the Iranian Intermezzo  

XV. The intertwined Islamic & Christian cultural heritage of Georgia, and Shota Rustaveli

XVI. Rustaveli's Russian translations and Stalin's pseudonyms

XVII. Archaeological excavations and Orientalist discoveries prior to Stalin's sojourn in Anatolia

XVIII. Stalin's textual sources of information about Mithra and the Mithraic mysteries

XIX. Spirituality, Religion, Eschatology, Soteriology, the Extinction of the Mankind, and Stalin

XX. Major themes of Stalin's spiritual quest in Anatolia – 1. Tauroctony and Crucifixion

XXI. Major themes of Stalin's spiritual quest in Anatolia – 2. Mithraic Trinity, Christian Trinity, Spirituality and Stalin

XXII. Major themes of Stalin's spiritual quest in Anatolia – 3. Solar nature of Mithraism / Immaculate birth from the rock

XXIII. How Stalin's Mithraic meditations in Anatolia formed his decision-making 

1. Pontus' King Mithridates VI's wars with Rome

2. Cilicia's Mithraic Pirates in fight with Rome, the desecration of Greece, and Stalin

3. Did Stalin travel to visit the world's greatest Mithraic monument at Nemrut Dagh?

4. Stalin's Mithraic meditations and anti-sacerdotal stance

5. The Mithraic version of the Assyrian-Babylonian Gilgamesh: Verethragna, and his association with Heracles in Nemrut Dagh

6. Mithraic Anatolian Imperial Spirituality vs. Nordic Mythology: Stalin vs. Hitler

XXIV. Rome, New Rome, the Third Rome, and Stalin

XXV. Mithraism, Christianity, Stalin and the Antichrist

The idea that most of the people around the world have about Stalin is entirely false. This is due to the fact that atheists, materialists, Marxists-Leninists, liberal socialists, socialist-democrats, evolutionists and all the trash of Anglo-Saxon and Ashkenazi Khazarian pseudo-intellectuals and bogus-academics have first perceived, then interpreted, and last analyzed/presented Stalin and his historical role through the most erroneous, Trotskyist misunderstanding/distortion of the Georgian-origin Soviet statesman. But Stalin was an unconditional transcendentalist and a remarkable mystic.

Mithraic Tauroctony from a Mithraeum in Syria (currently in the Israel museum in Jerusalem): a mythical-religious topic early conceived by evil forces as purely eschatological symbolism

Human sacrifice: dead bodies wait for cremation in Dresden after the bombardment of the 'Allied' forces.

I. The erroneous perception of Stalin among most people today

According to this irrelevant story, Stalin (1878-1953) was a resolute materialist, a convinced Darwinist, a devoted Marxist-Leninist, and a heartless dictator who decimated entire nations, before purging the old guard of Communist-Bolshevik partisans, relocating populations, and sending millions to jail. There is only little truth in all this. In fact, Stalin was as realist as Kemal Ataturk; he therefore had to appear to others in the way he did in order to succeed Lenin and eliminate Trotsky. Many may agree with the last sentence, stating that this is part of the well-known History.

But there is also the 'Other History'; the one that is unknown, because it did not happen. This is, in other words, the negative reflection of the reality. All the same, because this 'other' or 'unknown' History did not happen, this does not mean that it was not attempted. And indeed many secret and known organizations and 'societies' tried to prepare several developments which finally did not occur. It is essential for a true Historian to know well these failed attempts; in fact, he only then understands History as the Absolute Sphere that contains the outcome of all the desires, feelings, thoughts and attempts of the humans.

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Continue reading the remaining 25700 words of the 30200-word article here:

historikon.substack.com

Stalin in Ottoman Anatolia: his Spiritual, Religious and Historical Quests

The Mithraic Trajectory of an Unknown Transcendentalist

Read and download the entire book in PDF here:

Continental Empires

Stalin in Ottoman Anatolia: his Spiritual, Religious and Historical Quests

History, Ancient History, Silk-, Spice- Perfume Roads, Spirituality, Faith,

Wall of the Temple of Horus in Edfu, built by the Ptolemids between 237 and 57 BCE.

Abu Muhammad Ahmad ibn Atiq al-Azdi, Kitab al-baytarah (Book on Veterinary Medicine), 1223.

Courtesy Alain Truong

Εθνικός Ποιητής των Αζέρων o Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί, Χαφτ Πεϋκάρ (Επτά Ομορφιές), κι η Αναζήτηση της Υπερβατικής Ομορφιάς Γαιών και Εθνών από τον Σάχη Μπαχράμ Γκουρ

Nezami Ganjavi, National Poet of the Azeris, his Haft Peykar (Seven Beauties) and the Search for the Transcendental Ebullience of Lands and Nations by the Shah Bahram Gur

ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΑΝΕΝΕΡΓΟ ΜΠΛΟΓΚ “ΟΙ ΡΩΜΙΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗΣ”

Το κείμενο του κ. Νίκου Μπαϋρακτάρη είχε αρχικά δημοσιευθεί την 1η Σεπτεμβρίου 2019.

Στο κείμενό του αυτό, ο κ. Μπαϋραρκτάρης δημοσιεύει περίληψη ομιλίας μου (στο Πεκίνο τον Ιανουάριο 2019) αναφερόμενης στην υπερχρονική Κοσμογονία, Κοσμολογία και Εσχατολογία του Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί και στο τι αυτή σημαίνει για τα μεγάλα έθνη της Γης σήμερα ως αποκαλυπτική προφητεία. Αντίθετα από τις πρόχειρες ερμηνείες δυτικών οριενταλιστών, η ποίηση του Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί δεν έχει τίποτα το λυρικό ή ερωτικό, και οι αναφορές του στον Σασανίδη σάχη Μπαχράμ (Ουαραχράν Ε'; 420-438 τεμ) δεν είναι ούτε ιστορικές ούτε προσωπικές. Ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ είναι ένα μυστι(κιστι)κό σύμβολο του Μεσσία-Μάχντι.

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https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/09/01/εθνικός-ποιητής-των-αζέρων-o-νεζαμί-γκα/ ===================

Οι Ρωμιοί της Ανατολής – Greeks of the Orient

Ρωμιοσύνη, Ρωμανία, Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία

Σε δύο πρότερα κείμενά μου αναφέρθηκα στον Φερντοουσί, εθνικό ποιητή Ιρανών και Τουρανών, και στο μνημειώδες έπος του Σαχναμέ (Βιβλίο των Βασιλείων), το οποίο ολοκληρωμένο στις αρχές του 11 ου αιώνα, επηρέασε την λογοτεχνία και την φιλοσοφία, την κοσμολογία και την εσχατολογία πολλών άλλων εθνών με την υπερχρονική θεώρηση του Είναι και του Γίγνεσθαι που εισήγαγε στην μυθολόγηση της Ιστορίας και στην εξιστόρηση του Μύθου. Στον ίδιο τον Φερντοουσί και στο Σαχναμέ θα επανέλθω, αλλά μέχρι τότε τα κείμενα εκείνα μπορείτε εδώ:

Το Σαχναμέ του Σάχη Ταχμάσπ (1524-1576): οι πιο Όμορφες Σμικρογραφίες Χειρογράφου στον Κόσμο

https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/08/19/το-σαχναμέ-του-σάχη-ταχμάσπ-1524-1576-οι-πιο-όμ/

(πλέον: https://www.academia.edu/56206313/Το_Σαχναμέ_του_Σάχη_Ταχμάσπ_1524_1576_οι_πιο_Όμορφες_Σμικρογραφίες_Χειρογράφου_στον_Κόσμο)

Φερντοουσί, ο Παραδεισένιος: Εθνικός Ποιητής Ιρανών και Τουρανών, Θεμελιωτής του Νεώτερου Ευρασιατικού Πολιτισμού

https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/08/28/φερντοουσί-ο-παραδεισένιος-εθνικός-π/

(πλέον: https://www.academia.edu/61682121/Φερντοουσί_ο_Παραδεισένιος_Εθνικός_Ποιητής_Ιρανών_και_Τουρανών_Θεμελιωτής_του_Νεώτερου_Ευρασιατικού_Πολιτισμού)

Τυπικό παράδειγμα επίδρασης του Φερντοουσί είναι τα πολλά και εκπληκτικά έπη του Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί, δηλαδή του Νεζαμί από την Γκάντζα του Αζερμπαϊτζάν, που είναι ο εθνικός ποιητής των Αζέρων και ο σημαντικώτερος υπερβατικός φιλόσοφος, επικός και λυρικός ποιητής, μυστικιστής και πάνσοφος πολυμαθής του Καυκάσου. Φίλος σάχηδων και ηγεμόνων, ο Νεζαμί Γκαντζαβί ασχολήθηκε γράφοντας ποίηση με θέματα ιστορικά, επιστημονικά και ηθικά.

Σήμερα, θα κάνω μια πρώτη αναφορά στο έπος του Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί Χαφτ Πεϋκάρ, στο οποίο μέσα από συμβολισμούς κοσμολογικού κι εσχατολογικού χαρακτήρα ο Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί δίνει ολότελα άλλη διάσταση σε ένα προϊσλαμικό Σασανίδη σάχη και εξερευνά τις όψεις του κάλλους και της αισθητικής τελειότητας που αποτελούν την εγγύηση της άριστης βασιλείας.

Σμικρογραφία χειρογράφου του Χαφτ Πεϋκάρ

Ενδεικτικό μάλιστα της απήχησης της αζερικής επικής παράδοσης είναι ότι προ ετών χορογραφήθηκαν αποσπάσματα από το Χαφτ Πεϋκάρ και ανέβηκαν ως μπαλέτο. Στιγμιότυπα από το μπαλέτο θα δείτε στο βίντεο. Στο εισαγωγικό σημείωμα, σε ρωσσικά, αγγλικά κι ελληνικά, εξιστορώ διά βραχέων την υπόθεση του έπους. Περισσότερα μπορείτε να διαβάσετε παρακάτω είτε κατεβάζοντας επισυναπτόμενα άρθρα είτε πηγαίνοντας στους συνδέσμους που παραθέτω.

Βασικές αρτηρίες των Ιστορικών Δρόμων του Μεταξιού

Δείτε το βίντεο:

Низами Гянджеви, Хафт пейкар (Семь красавиц) 1197 Составлено как балет доктором Лорел Викторией Грей (Silk Road Dance Co)

https://www.ok.ru/video/1494107032173

Περισσότερα:

Основанный на эпической поэме Хафт пайкар («Семь красавиц»), написанной Низами Гянджеви, национальным поэтом азербайджанцев, фольклорный балет «Хафт пайкар» («Семь красавиц / Йедди Гезл рэкси»), составленный доктором Лорел Викторией Грей, был впервые показан в 2005 году. Настоящая версия из спектакля 2011 года приглашенных артистов (постановка танцевального ансамбля «Шелковый путь»).

«Семь краса́виц» (перс. هفت پیکر — Хафт пайкар) — четвёртая по счёту поэма классика персидской поэзии Низами Гянджеви из его сборника «Хамсе», написанная в 1197 году на персидском языке. В основу сюжета поэмы положена легенда о сасанидском шахе Бахрам Гуре (420—439 годы). Почти половину всей поэмы составляют семь рассказов жён Бахрама — царевен, живущих в семи дворцах (в шатрах), каждый из которых, в соответствии с древней мифологией, посвящён какой-либо планете и дню недели и имеет соответствующий цвет.

После смерти отца Бахрам возвращается в Персию и восходит на престол. Став царём, Бахрам предпринимает поиски семи принцесс и женится на них. Он приказывает архитектору построить семь величественных зданий — по одному для каждой из своих новых жён. Архитектор рассказывает Бахраму, что, согласно астрологии, каждой страной, или «климатом», то есть одним из семи «поясов», на которые разделена Земля, правит одна из семи планет, и даёт совет Бахраму украсить каждый из дворцов для его жён в оттенках цвета, с которым ассоциируется планета, правящая страной, откуда прибыла каждая из красавиц.

Вначале Бахрам относился скептически к предложению архитектора, но потом даёт согласие на такое оформление дворцов для своих жён. После завершения строительства принцессы поселяются в своих дворцах. Бахрам посещает каждую принцессу в определённый день недели.

Интересно, что Бахрам является к принцессам в одеянии цвета их дворца. Каждая из принцесс рассказывает царю свою историю, которая соответствует определённому настроению и её соответствующему цвету. Сюжет каждой новеллы — любовное переживание, причём, в соответствии с переходом от чёрного цвета к белому, грубая чувственность сменяется духовно просветлённой любовью. Некоторые видят в этом переходе мистический путь, который должна пройти человеческая душа от мрака к чистоте, к божеству.

Соответственно этому царь, проходя этот путь, обретал высокие душевные качества. Впоследствии, испытав горечь поражения, предательство и другие невзгоды, он из любителя приключений превращается в достойного и справедливого правителя.

Таким образом, вторая тематическая линия поэмы — превращение Бахрама из легкомысленного царевича в справедливого и умного правителя, борющегося с произволом и насилием.

Проходят годы. Пока царь был занят своими жёнами, один из его визирей захватил власть в стране. Неожиданно Бахрам обнаруживает, что дела в его царстве в беспорядке, казна пуста, а соседние правители собираются на него напасть. Расследовав деяния министра, Бахрам приходит к выводу, что тот виновен в бедах, постигших царство.

Он приговаривает злодея-министра к смертной казни и восстанавливает справедливость и порядок в своей стране. После этого Бахрам приказывает превратить семь дворцов своих жён в семь зороастрийских храмов для поклонения Богу, а сам Бахрам отправляется на охоту и исчезает в глубокой пещере.

Пытаясь найти дикого осла (гур), Бахрам находит свою могилу (гур).

Μαυσωλείο του Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί στην Γκάντζα του Αζερμπαϊτζάν

Δείτε το βίντεο:

Nizami Ganjavi, Haft Paykar (Seven Beauties) 1197 Composed as Ballet by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray (Silk-Road Dance Co)

https://vk.com/video434648441_456240286

Περισσότερα:

Based on the epic Haft Peykar (Seven Beauties) written by Nizami Ganjavi, who is the national poet of the Azeris, the folkloric ballet Haft Paykar (Seven Beauties / Yeddi Gözəl rəqsi) composed by Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray premiered in 2005. The present version is from the 2011 performance of special guest artists invited by the Silk Road Dance Company.

Haft Peykar (Farsi: هفت پیکر) also known as Bahramnameh (بهرامنامه, The Book of Bahram, referring to the Sasanian king Bahram Gur) is a romantic epic by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi written in 1197.

This poem is a part of the Nizami’s Khamsa. The original title in Persian Haft Peykar can be translated literally as “seven portraits” with the figurative meaning of “seven beauties”.

The poet starts by giving an account of the birth of Bahram and his upbringing in the court of the Arab king al-Nu’man and his fabled palace Khwarnaq. Bahram whose upbringing is entrusted to al-Nu’man becomes a formidable huntsman.

While wandering through the fabled palace, he discovers a locked room which contains a depiction of seven princesses; hence the name Haft Paykar (seven beauties).

Each of these princesses is from the seven different climes (traditional Zoroastrian division of the Earth) and he falls in love with them. His father Yazdegerd 1st passes away and Bahram returns to Iran to claim his throne from pretenders. After some episodes he is recognized as shah and rescues the Iranians from a famine.

Once the country is stable, the shah searches for the seven princesses and wins them as his brides. His architect is ordered to construct seven domes for each of his new brides.

The architect tells him that each of the seven climes is ruled by one of the seven planets (classical planetary system of Zoroastrian world) and advises him to assure good fortune by adorning each dome with the color that is associated with each clime and planet. Bahram is skeptical but follows the advice of the architect.

The princesses take up residence in the splendid pavilions. On each visit, the shah visits the princesses on successive days of the week; on Saturday the Indian princess, who is governed by Saturn and so on.

The princesses names are Furak (Nurak), the daughter of the Rajah of India, as beautiful as the moon; Yaghma Naz, the daughter of the Khaqan of the Turks; Naz Pari, the daughter of the king of Khwarazm; Nasrin Nush, the daughter of the king of the Slavs; Azarbin (Azareyon), the daughter of the king of Morocco; Humay, the daughter of the Roman Caesar; and Diroste (wholesome), a beautiful Iranian princess from the House of Kay Kavus.

Each princess relates to the shah a story matching the mood of her respective color. These seven beautifully constructed, highly sensuous stories occupy about half of the whole poem. While the shah is busy with the seven brides, his evil minister seizes power in the realm.

Bahram discovers that the affairs of Iran are in disarray, the treasury is empty and the neighboring rulers are posed to invade. He clears his mind first by going hunting.

After returning from hunt, he sees a suspended dog from a tree. The owner of the dog, who was shepherd, tells the story of how his faithful watchdog had betrayed his flock to a she-wolf in return for sexual favors.

He starts investigating the corrupt minister and from the multitude of complaints, he selects seven who tell him the injustice they have suffered.

The minister is subsequently put to death and Bahram restores justice and orders the seven pleasure-domes to be converted to fire temples for the pleasure of God.

Bahram then goes hunting for the last time but mysteriously disappears. As a pun on words, while trying to hunt the wild ass (gūr) he instead finds his tomb (gūr).

Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature, Baku

Δείτε το βίντεο:

Νεζαμί-Γκαντζεβί, Χαφτ Πεϊκάρ (Επτά Ομορφιές) 1197 Αποδομένο σε Μπαλέτο – Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray

Περισσότερα:

Βασισμένο στο επικό-λυρικό ποίημα Χαφτ Πεϊκάρ (Επτά Ομορφιές) του εθνικού ποιητή των Αζέρων Νιζαμί Γκαντζαβί (1141–1209), το φολκλορικό μπαλέτο Haft Paykar: Seven Beauties – Yeddi Gözəl rəqsi συντέθηκε από την χορογράφο κι ιστορικό χορού Dr. Laurel Victoria Gray και παρουσιάστηκε για πρώτη φορά το 2005. Στο βίντεο βλέπουμε αποσπάσματα από την παραγωγή και παράσταση του 2011 που ανέβασε η Silk Road Dance Company.

Το ποίημα Χαφτ Πεϊκάρ (φαρσί هفت پیکر) γράφηκε το 1197 κι αναφέρεται στις αναζητήσεις του κάλλους γαιών και εθνών εκ μέρους του Σάχη Μπαχράμ Γκουρ. Συμβατικά μεταφράζεται σαν ‘ομορφιές’ ή ‘beauties’ ή ακόμη και ‘πριγκίπισσες’ αλλά η λέξη ‘πεϊκάρ’ στα περσικά σημαίνει ‘σώμα’, ‘ομοίωμα’, ‘πορτρέτο’ ή ακόμη και ‘μορφή’.

Κατά το υπερβατικό, μυστηριακό και φιλοσοφικό αυτό ποίημα, στις περιηγήσεις του ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ, ενόσω είναι ακόμη ο διάδοχος του θρόνου, ανακαλύπτει ένα μυθικό ανάκτορο και καταφέρνει να μπεί σε ένα κλειδωμένο δωμάτιο όπου υπάρχουν επτά απεικονίσεις ωραίων πριγκιπισών. Η κάθε μια τους αντιστοιχεί σε μια χώρα και σε ένα έθνος και αναλογεί σε μια διαφορετική ημέρα της εβδομάδας και σε ένα διαφορετικό χρώμα.

Ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ ερωτεύεται και τις επτά πριγκίπισες αλλά πρέπει να επιστρέψει στο Ιράν, όπου πεθαίνει ο σάχης πατέρας του, ανέρχεται ο ίδιος στον θρόνο και περνάει κάποιο διάστημα μέχρις ότου βάλει τα πράγματα σε μια τάξη. Τότε ως Σάχης ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ ψάχνει και βρίσκει τις πριγκίπισσες και ζητάει από τον αρχιτέκτονά του να ανεγείρει ένα ανάκτορο με επτά θόλους, ένα για την κάθε νύφη του.

Ο αρχιτέκτονας του λέει ότι πρέπει να βρεθεί η αντιστοιχία της καταγωγής των πριγκιπισών με τους επτά πλανήτες, τις ημέρες της εβδομάδας και τα σωστά χρώματα. Έτσι λοιπόν ορίζεται η εξής αντστοιχία και αναφέρονται τα ονόματα των πριγκιπισών:

Φουράκ – Ινδή Πριγκίπισσα – Κρόνος – Σάββατο – μαύρο

Γιάγμα Ναζ – Τουρανή Πριγκίπισσα – Ήλιος – Κυριακή – κίτρινο

Ναζ Παρί – Πριγκίπισσα της Χωρασμίας – Σελήνη – Δευτέρα – πράσινο

Νασρίν Νους – Ρωσσίδα (ή Σλαύα) Πριγκίπισσα – Άρης – Τρίτη – κόκκινο

Αζαρμπίν – Βέρβερη Πριγκίπισσα – Ερμής – Τετάρτη – τυρκουάζ

Χουμάυ – Ρωμιά Πριγκίπισσα – Δίας – Πέμπτη – σανταλόξυλο (ανοικτό καφέ)

Ντιροστέ – Ιρανή Πριγκίπισσα – Αφροδίτη – Παρασκευή – λευκό

Στη συνέχεια, οι επτά πριγκίπισες εγκαθίστανται στο μεγαλειώδες ανάκτορο, και κάθε πριγκίπισσα αφηγείται και μια διαφορετική ιστορία στον Σάχη Μπαχράμ Γκουρ κατά τις ημερήσιες επισκέψεις του στην κάθε μία από αυτές.

Αυτές οι επτά ιστορίες υπερβατικού έρωτα για το Απόλυτο καταλαμβάνουν την μισή έκταση περίπου του όλου έπους. Στην διάρκεια αυτών των αφηγήσεων όμως η χώρα του Σάχη αναστατώνεται από την κακή διοίκηση, τα ταμεία αδειάζουν, και τα γειτονικά κράτη είναι έτοιμα να επιτεθούν.

Ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ πρώτα καθαρίζει το μυαλό του απασχολούμενος σε ένα κυνήγι. Όταν γυρίζει, βλέπει σε ένα δέντρο κρεμασμένο ένα σκύλο. Ο τσομπάνος, στον οποίο ανήκε ο σκύλος, αφηγείται στον επιστρέφοντα Σάχη πως ο σκύλος του τον επρόδωσε παρασυρόμενος από το πάθος του για μια λύκαινα.

Για να εκδικάσει τον βεζύρη (πρωθυπουργό) του για την κακοδιοίκηση ακροάται επτά άτομα που του αφηγούνται πως από την κακή διοίκηση έγιναν θύματα. Έπειτα, ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ εκτελεί τον κακό βεζύρη, μετατρέπει το ανάκτορο των επτά θόλων σε επτά ναούς, και φεύγει για ένα τελευταίο κυνήγι όπου και χάνεται για πάντα.

Ο ποιητής κάνει ένα λογοπαίγνιο λέγοντας ότι, προσπαθώντας να κυνηγήσει τον όναγρο (γκουρ) ο Σάχης έφθασε μπροστά στον τάφο (γκουρ) του. Η ίδια λεξη στα φαρσί έχει δύο νοήματα. Στην ιρανική και τουρανική παιδεία, ο Μπαχράμ έμεινε γνωστός ως Μπαχράμ ο Όναγρος (γκουρ).

Βεβαίως το επικό-λυρικό ποίημα είναι γεμάτο κοσμολογικών, μεσσιανικών, σωτηριολογικών κι εσχατολογικών συμβολισμών. Όπως συχνά συμβαίνει και στην περίπτωση του Φερντοουσί, του εθνικού ποιητή των Ιρανών και των Τουρανών, ο Σαχης Μπαχράμ Γκουρ του έπους Χαφτ Πεκάρ δεν είναι αυτό τούτο το ιστορικό πρόσωπο, ο Μπαχράμ Ε’ (420-438 / σε μέσα περσικά: Ουαραχράν και Ουαχράμ) της σασανιδικής δυναστείας, όπως αυτός είναι γνωστό

ς μέσω των συγχρόνων του ιστορικών κειμένων. Πρόκειται για μυθολογογημένο πρόσωπο που επιλέγεται με βάση κάποια από τα καθοριστικά χαρακτηριστικά του ιστορικού Σασανίδη σάχη. Άλλωστε, ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ είχε επίσης μυθολογηθεί (μέσα σε άλλες ιστορίες) από τον Φερντοουσί (που πέθανε περίπου 120 χρόνια πριν γεννηθεί ο Νιζαμί Γκαντζαβί) στο Σαχναμέ και αργότερα (μέσα σε επίσης διαφορετικές ιστορίες) από τον Αμίρ Χουσράου (εθνικό ποιητή των Ινδών που γεννήθηκε 50 χρόνια μετά τον θάνατο του Νιζαμί Γκαντζαβί) στο Χαστ Μπεχέστ (Οκτώ Παράδεισοι).

Ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ στο κυνήγι

Ο Μπαχράμ Γκουρ και η Φίτνε, μία σκλάβα που εκτρέφει μία αγελάδα

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Διαβάστε:

Haft Peykar

Haft peykar, a famous romantic epic by Nezami of Ganja (Neẓāmi Ganjavi) from the last decade of the 6th/12th century. The title can be translated literally as “seven portraits,” but also with the figurative meaning of “seven beauties.” Both translations are meaningful and the poet doubtless exploited intentionally the ambiguity of the words.

Editions and translations

The Haft peykar has come down to us as part of the Ḵamsa, the posthumous collection of Nezami’s narrative poems. A critical edition of the Haft peykar was produced by Helmut Ritter and Jan Rypka (Prague, printed Istanbul, 1934) on the basis of fifteen Ḵamsa manuscripts and the Bombay lithograph of 1265. This is one of the very few editions of a classical Persian text that uses a strict text-critical methodology: the editors divided the principal manuscripts into two families (called ‘a’ and ‘b’). Only those verses shared by both families are regarded as authentic.

The ‘b’ family is taken as the main basis for the edition, with those verses missing in the ‘a’ family printed in square brackets. The verses specific to the ‘a’ family are printed in the critical apparatus. More recently, the Haft peykar was re-edited by the Azerbayjani scholar T. A. Magerramov (Maharramov) (Moscow, 1987).

This edition quotes variants from fourteen manuscripts, the Ritter/Rypka edition and the uncritical edition by Waḥīd Dastgerdī (Tehran, 1315 Š./1936 and reprints), but Magerramov made no attempt to divide the manuscripts into families and in this regard his version is a step backwards from the Prague edition. There is also an edition by Barāt Zanjāni (Tehran, 1373 Š./1994), but the present writer has not been able to consult it. In the following, all references are to chapter and line of the Prague edition.

Ο Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί γίνεται δεκτός από τον Κιζίλ Αρσλάν, τον Κιπτσάκ Τουρανό ηγεμόνα (αταμπέκ) του Αζερμπαϊτζάν

There are three complete translations in western European languages. First, the one in very rough English “blank verse” by C. E. Wilson (The Haft paikar, 2 vols., London, 1924, with extensive notes), wherein the post-Victorian translator felt compelled to render a fairly large number of verses in Latin; second, an Italian prose version by A. Bausani (Le sette principesse, Bari, 1967), based on the critical edition by Ritter/Rypka, with omission of the bracketed verses; and finally an English version by J. S. Meisami (The Haft Paykar, a medieval Persian Romance, Oxford and New York, 1995), in “free verse” (partially rhymed, partially in near-rhymes, partially unrhymed) based on the Ritter/Rypka edition (but retaining the bracketed verses).

There are also versions in Russian prose (R. Aliyev, Baku, 1983) and verse (V. Derzhavin, Moscow, 1959 and reprints). Of the various partial translations it might suffice to mention the one by R. Gelpke in very elegant German prose (Die sieben Geschichten der sieben Prinzessinnen, Zurich, 1959), also in English metatranslation by E. Mattin and G. Hill (The Story of the Seven Princesses, Oxford, 1976).

Date and dedication

The Haft peykar is probably Nezami’s last work. The manuscripts of the superior ‘b’ recension contain a dedication to the ruler of Marāḡa, ʿAlāʾ-al-Dīn Körpe-Arslān b. Aq-Sonqor (he is named in V. 12), who is known to have died in 604/1208 (see Storey/de Blois V, p. 441, n. 2), and the date of completion is indicated in LIII, 63-64 with the words: “three conjunctions after five hundred and ninety I recited this book like the famous (poets of the past), on the fourteenth day of the month of fasting, when four hours of the day were complete,” evidently meaning on 14 Ramadan 593 (early August 1197).

This is probably correct. But the manuscripts of the ‘a’ recension have altered (or miscopied?) the name of the dedicatee to Qïzïl Arslān, retained the verse giving the day, month and hour of completion, but altered the year to “after ṯā (variant: tā) and ṣād and ḥē” i.e., either “after 498” (which is much too early) or “after 598/1202.”

Ο Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί γίνεται δεκτός από τον Τουρανό ηγεμόνα (αταμπέκ) του Αζερμπαϊτζάν

Synopsis of the frame-story

The Haft peykar is a romanticized biography of the Sassanian ruler Bahrām-e Gūr. His adventurous life had already been treated in Persian verse by Ferdowsi in the Šāh-nāma, to which fact Nezami alludes a number of times. In general, his method is to omit those episodes that the earlier poet had treated, or to touch on them only very briefly, and to concentrate in new material.

After the customary long introductory sections, the poet gives an account of the birth of Bahrām, the often-told story of his upbringing at the court of the Arab king Noʿmān (here, as often, mislocated in the Yemen instead of al-Ḥira) and the construction of Noʿmān’s fabled palace, Ḵᵛarnaq. Reared in the desert, Bahrām becomes a formidable huntsman. Wandering through the palace, Bahrām discovers a locked room containing the portraits of seven princesses, one from each of the seven climes, with whom he immediately falls in love.

Bahrām’s father Yazdjerd (i.e. Yazdegerd I) dies, and Bahrām returns to Persia to claim his throne from a pretender. After much palaver he is recognized as king. He rescues his people from a famine. Next Nezami picks up the story of Bah-rām’s hunting expedition with the loose-tongued slave-girl Feṭna, but alters the version known from the Šāh-nāma considerably; here the girl is not put to death, but eventually pardoned, and the king learns a lesson in clemency.

The king sets out in search of the seven princesses and wins them as his brides. He orders his architect to construct seven domes to house his new wives. The craftsman tells him that each of the climes is ruled by one of the seven planets and advises him to assure his good fortune by adorning each dome with the color associated with the clime and planet of its occupant. The king is at first skeptical but eventually lets the architect have his way. The princesses take up residence in the splendid pavilions.

The king visits each princess on successive days of the week: on Saturday the Indian princess, who is governed by Saturn, in the black dome, on Sunday the Greek princess, who is governed by the sun, in the yellow dome, and so on. Each princess regales the king with a story matching the mood of her respective color. These seven beautifully constructed, highly sensuous stories occupy about half of the whole poem.

Years pass. While the king is busy with his wives an evil minister seizes power in the realm. Eventually Bahrām discovers that the affairs of the kingdom are in disarray, the treasury is empty and the neighboring rulers poised for invasion. To clear his mind, he goes hunting in the steppe. Returning from the hunt he comes across a herdsman who has suspended his dog from a tree. He asks him why. The shepherd tells the story of how the once faithful watchdog had betrayed his flock to a she-wolf in return for sexual favors.

The king realizes that his own watchdog (the evil minister) is the cause of his misfortune. He investigates the minister. From the multitude of complainants he selects seven, who tell him of the injustices that they have suffered (the stories of the seven victims are the somber counterweight to the stories of the seven princesses). The minister is put to death. The king restores justice, and orders the seven pleasure-domes to be converted into fire temples for the worship of God. Bahrām goes hunting one last time and disappears mysteriously into a cavern. He seeks the wild ass (gūr) but finds his tomb (gūr).

General characteristics

In his introduction to the critical edition, Ritter described the Haft peykar as “the best and most beautiful epic in New Persian poetry and at the same time . . . one of the most important poetical creations of the whole of oriental Indo-European literature,” a judgment with which it is difficult to disagree. The poet made artful use of various older sources, among them the Šāh-nāma and other versions of ancient Iranian history and legend, also the Siāsat-nāma of Neẓām-al-Molk, from which he took the crucial story of the shepherd and his unfaithful dog.

It is possible that the seven stories told by the princesses derive from earlier works, but it has not actually been possible to trace any of them to known literary sources. Nezami’s telling of the stories has in any event had great influence on the later development of Persian literature and world literature; for example the story told by the fourth (Russian) beauty is the oldest known, and arguably best, version of the tale of the cruel princess who is unnamed in Nezami’s version, but known in Pétis de la Croix’s translation of a later retelling as Turāndoḵt (Turandot; see, e.g., Meier).

Nezami’s Haft peykar is a masterpiece of erotic literature, but it is also a profoundly moralistic work. In some modern studies it has been regarded more or less as a versified treatise on astrology, but this is a misapprehension. The point of the story is clearly that Bahrām’s attempt to find happiness by living in accordance with the stars is a failure.

The seven domes are built in perfect accord with the properties of the stars, but they are very nearly the cause of his downfall. In the end it is only justice that matters. Only by abandoning the pleasures represented by the seven domes and heeding the complaints of the seven victims of tyranny does Bahrām acquire the status of a true hero.

And the essentially anti-fatalistic message is underlined by the story of the second (Greek) princess, which tells of a king who, because of an unhappy horoscope, had foresworn marriage, but then is led by the selfless love of a slave-girl to defy the astrologers and take his fate in his own hands.

Although there are mystic (Sufic) traits in the narrative (notably in the story of the seventh victim) it is also misguided to regard it, with some, as a Sufic allegory. It is a work of art that is very firmly rooted in this world, and its ethical content is of essentially worldly, not religious, nature.

Μπορείτε να βρείτε την αναφερόμενη βιβλιογραφία εδώ:

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haft-peykar

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Περισσότερα:

A Key to the Treasure of the Hakim – Christine van Ruymbeke & Johann-Christoph Bürgel (eds.)

Κατεβάστε το Pdf με πολλά άρθρα ειδικών σχετικά με τον Νεζαμί Γκαντζεβί και το έπος Χαφτ Πεϋκάρ:

https://vk.com/doc429864789_620827883

https://www.docdroid.net/Y6MroCn/key-to-the-treasure-of-the-hakim-on-nizami-khamsa-pdf

Cameron Cross The Many Colors of Love in Niẓāmī’s Haft Paykar

Κατεβάστε το Pdf:

https://vk.com/doc429864789_620829460

https://www.docdroid.net/OUB35qe/cameron-cross-the-many-colors-of-love-in-nizamis-haft-paykar-pdf

Δείτε σμικρογραφίες άλλου χειρογράφου του Χαφτ Πεϋκάρ: https://findit.library.yale.edu/?f%5Blanguage_sim%5D%5B%5D=Persian&f%5Bsubject_topic_sim%5D%5B%5D=Persian+poetry

Επίσης:

https://www.sid.ir/en/journal/ViewPaper.aspx?id=408542

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/nizami/hpaykar.htm

http://azeribooks.narod.ru/poezia/nizami/sem_krasavits.htm

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Семь_красавиц

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haft_Peykar

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Низами_Гянджеви

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizami_Ganjavi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahram_V

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бахрам_V

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Khusrow

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сакалиба

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqaliba

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Σχετικά με τις παραστάσεις μπαλέτου Χαφτ Πεϊκάρ:

Haft Paykar: Seven Beauties Dance Concert

February 26, 2011 at 2:00 PM

INTERSECTIONS: New America Arts Festival

WASHINGTON DC PREMIERE!

This epic romance is a visual treat, taking viewers to seven different cultures.

Based on the 12th century poem by Nizami Ganjavi, the tale tells of the young warrior Bahram Gur, who enters a mysterious, locked room to discover the portraits of seven beautiful princesses, each from a different land.

After he wins a kingdom and achieves great wealth and power, he remembers the maidens and sets out on a quest to bring each to his kingdom, commissioning the architect Shideh to build seven domed structures – one for each bride

http://www.silkroaddance.com/2011.html

Περισσότερα για τους συντελεστές και παραγωγούς της παράστασης:

https://www.facebook.com/HaftPaykar

http://www.laurelvictoriagray.com/

http://www.silkroaddance.com/

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Κατεβάστε την αναδημοσίευση σε PDF:

https://www.slideshare.net/MuhammadShamsaddinMe/o-250655546

https://issuu.com/megalommatis/docs/nezami_ganjavi

https://vk.com/doc429864789_620935781

https://www.docdroid.net/8Lza618/ethnikos-poiitis-ton-azeron-o-nezami-gkantzevi-xaft-peykar-epta-omorfies-pdf

“If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.” - Gautama Buddha

Ashtamangala Talon Abraxas

Ashtamangala: Eight Auspicious Symbols of the Buddha.

The Ashtamangala are a sacred set of eight auspicious signs or symbols. They are considered a teaching tool, which point to the qualities of enlightenment. Within Buddhism, the Ashtamangala, are symbols of good fortune and represent the offerings made to Buddha by the gods upon gaining enlightenment

Head of a Winged Protective Spirit from Room B at the Northwest Palace of Nimrud, the Assyrian Capital. The alabaster wall relief dates back to the era of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE). Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA.  

Photo by Babylon Chronicle

Itinerary in Imam's Persia - by Cosmas Megalommatis

Οδοιπορικό στην Περσία του Ιμάμη – του Μουχάμαντ Σαμσαντίν Μεγαλομμάτη

Το άρθρο αυτό δημοσιεύθηκε για πρώτη φορά στο περιοδικό Ανεξήγητο (Μάρτης 1986, σελ. 116-127). Για πρώτη φορά μεταφέρθηκε στο Ιντερνέτ από το σήμερα πλέον απενεργοποιημένο σάιτ technova: http://www.technova.gr/technova/index.php/2012-06-21-03-15-38/afieroma/1927-odoiporiko-stin-persia-tou-imam την Τετάρτη 19 Αυγούστου 2015. Ο φίλος κ. Νίκος Μπαϋρακτάρης αντέγραψε το κείμενο και με άφθονο φωτογραφικό, το οποίο συνέλεξε από το Ιντερνέτ, το ανέβασε ως βίντεο (σε δύο τμήματα) στο σήμερα απενεργοποιημένο ΥΤ κανάλι του. Η μουσική υπόκρουση ήταν δικής μου επιλογής. Χάρη στο υλικό που είχε ο κ. Μπαϋρακτάρης ετοιμάσει, ανέβασα το άρθρο σε δύο μορφές (σε Word doc η πρώτη και σε PowerPoint η δεύτερη) εδώ:

και

Τα βίντεο, τα οποία ετοίμασε ο κ. Μπαϋρακτάρης, μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ:’

{Μουσική / Music accompaniment: Classical music from Iran – Great masters of the setar – Hossein Alizadeh (حسین علیزاده) 00:00 Mahtab 16:17 Avaz-e Abouata Masnavi} και

{Μουσική / Music accompaniment: Shahram Nazeri – Mystified (Sufi Music of Iran) 00:00 – Jewel of Love 10:09 – Desire}

Μπορείτε επίσης να τα βρείτε αντιστοίχως και εδώ:

Путеводитель по Ирану Имама / Itinerary in Imam’s Persia / Οδοιπορικό στην Περσία του Ιμάμη – του Μ. Σ. Μεγαλομμάτη https://ok.ru/video/333170084440

και

Путеводитель по Ирану Имама II / Itinerary in Imam’s Persia II / Οδοιπορικό στην Περσία του Ιμάμη II – του Μ. Σ. Μεγαλομμάτη https://ok.ru/video/333172181592

Σε αυτή την ηλεκτρονική αναδημοσίευση παρουσιάζονται για πρώτη φορά online οι ίδιες οι σελίδες του περιοδικού, αν και ασπρόμαυρες.

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Κατεβάστε το άρθρο σε PDF:

calameo.com

Οδοιπορικό στην Περσία του Ιμάμη

Οδοιπορικό στην Περσία του Ιμάμη – του Μουχάμαντ Σαμσαντίν Μεγαλομμάτη Το άρθρο αυτό δημοσιεύθηκε για πρώτη φορά στο περιοδικό Ανεξήγητο (Μά

docdroid.net

Οδοιπορικό στην Περσία του Ιμάμη.pdf

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1B, Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Outline

Western Orientalist historiography; early sources of Iranian History; Prehistory in the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia

6- Western Orientalist historiography

The modern Western European specialists on Iran were first based on the Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Latin sources and on travelers' records and descriptions. On his way to China, the Italian Franciscan monk Odoric of Pordenone was the first European to probably visit (in 1320) the ruins of Parsa (Persepolis) that he called 'Comerum'. The site was then known as Chehel Minar (چهل منار /i.e. forty minarets) and later as Takht-e Jamshid (تخت جمشید/i.e. the throne of Jamshid, a great hero of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and of the Iranian legendary historiography about which we discussed). The Venetian Giosafat Barbaro visited the same location in 1474 and, being the victim of the delusions about which I spoke already, he attributed the erection of the majestic monuments to the Jews!

After the rise of the Safavid dynasty and the formation of the two alliances (the French with the Ottomans and the English with the Iranians), an English merchant visited Persepolis in 1568 and wrote a description that was included in Richard Hakluyt's 'Voyages' (1582). Old Achaemenid cuneiform inscriptions were first noticed and reported by the Portuguese António de Gouveia, who visited the site in 1602 and wrote about it in 1611. It is only in 1618 that the Spanish ambassador (to the court of the Safavid Shah of Iran Abbas I/1571-1629; reigned after 1588) García de Silva Figueroa associated the location with the great Achaemenid capital that was known as Persepolis in the Ancient Greek and Latin sources.

The Italian Pietro Della Valle spent five years (1616-1621) in Mesopotamia and Iran, visited Persepolis (1621), made copies of several inscriptions that he noticed there and took them back to Europe, along with clay tablets and bricks that he found in Babylon and Ur. This was the first cuneiform documentation brought to Europe. With respect to Persepolis he wrote that only 25 of the 72 original columns were still standing.

Good indication of the lunacy that Western Europeans experienced at those days due to their erroneous reading of the untrustworthy Ancient Greek historical sources about Achaemenid Iran is the following fact: after traveling in Asia and Africa, Sir Thomas Herbert wrote in his book (1638) that in Persepolis he saw several lines of strange signs curved in the walls. These were, of course, Old Achaemenid cuneiform inscriptions, but at the time, the modern term 'cuneiform' had not been invented; however, excessively enthused with Greek literature about Ancient Iran, he 'concluded' that these characters 'resembled Greek'! He mistook cuneiform for Greek! So biased his approach was!

The term 'cuneiform' ('Keilschrift' in German) was coined (1700) by the German scholar and explorer Engelbert Kaempfer, who spent ten years (1683-1693) in many parts of Asia. The monumental site of the Achaemenid capital was also visited by the famous Dutch artist Cornelis de Bruijn (1704) and the famous jeweler Sir Jean Chardin, who also worked as agent of Shah Abbas II for the purchase of jewels. He was the first to publish (1711) pertinent copies of several cuneiform inscriptions.

The German surveyor Carsten Niebuhr took the research to the next stage when he copied and published (1764) the famous rock reliefs and inscriptions of Darius the Great; in fact, he brought complete and accurate copies of the inscriptions at Persepolis to Europe. He realized that he had to do with three writing systems and that the simpler (which he named 'Class I') comprised 42 characters, being apparently an alphabetic script. Niebuhr's publication was used by many other scholars and explorers, notably the Germans Oluf Gerhard Tychsen, who published the most advanced research on the topic in 1798, and Friedrich Münter, who confirmed the alphabetic nature of the script (in 1802). 

The reconstitution of the Iranian past proved to be far more difficult a task than that of the Ancient Egyptian heritage. This is so because, if we consider the Old Achaemenid Iranian cuneiform and the Egyptian hieroglyphics as the earliest stages of the two respective languages and scripts, Coptic (the latest stage of the Egyptian language) was always known in Europe throughout the Christian and Modern times, whereas Pahlavi and Middle Persian (the corresponding stages of the Iranian languages) were totally unknown. For this reason, Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, the first French Iranologist and Indologist, played a key role in the decipherment of the cuneiform writing, although he did not spend time exploring it. But having learned Pahlavi and Farsi among the Parsis of India, he managed to study Avestan and he translated the Avesta as the sacred text of the Zoroastrians was preserved among the Parsi community. Pretty much like Coptic was essential to Champollion for the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphic, the pioneering work of Anquetil-Duperron and the knowledge of Avestan, Pahlavi, Middle Persian and Farsi helped the French Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy and the German Georg Friedrich Grotefend make critical breakthroughs and advance the decipherment of the Old Achaemenid.   

Grotefend's Memoir was presented to the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1802, but it was rejected; in fact, he had deciphered only eight (8) letters until that moment, but most of his assumptions were correct. He had however to wait for an incredible confirmation; after Champollion completed his first step toward the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822, he read the Egyptian text of a quadrilingual inscription on the famous Caylus vase (named after a 18th c. French collector). Then, Champollion's associate, the Orientalist Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin, announced that Grotefend's reading of the imperial Achaemenid name 'Xerxes' did indeed correspond to what the Egyptian hieroglyphic text testified to. This situation generated an impetus among Orientalist scholars and explorers; until the late 1830s and the early 1840s, Grotefend, the French Eugène Burnouf, the Norwegian-German Christian Lassen, and Sir Henry Rawlinson completed the task.

Shush (Susa), an Elamite and later an Achaemenid capital, was explored in 1851, 1885-1886, 1894-1899, and then systematically excavated by the French Jacques de Morgan (1897-1911), whereas Pasargad (the early Achaemenid capital) was first explored by the German Ernst Herzfeld in 1905. Persepolis was excavated quite later, only in the 1930s by Ernst Herzfeld and Erich Schmidt of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Not far from Hamadan (the ancient capital Hegmataneh/Ekbatana of the Medes), the splendid site of Mount Behistun (Bisotun) had become world-famous even before it was excavated (initially in 1904) by Leonard William King and Reginald Campbell Thompson (sponsored by the British Museum). This was due to the fact that the famous trilingual Behistun inscription and the associated reliefs were carved at about 100 m above ground level on a cliff, and explorers had to scale the cliff. Several fascinating descriptions of the extraordinary location were written by travelers and visitors, before academic work was carried out there. Putting his life in risk, Rawlinson copied the Old Achaemenid text in 1835, and this helped him advance considerably the decipherment of the script. 

Without the decipherment of the Old Achaemenid, it would be impossible for Rawlinson to decipher the Assyrian-Babylonian cuneiform, and later for others to read the Hittite script which enabled us to have access to the most important and the most original Anatolian literature of pre-Christian times.

Behistun (Farsi: Bisotun / Old Iranian: Bagastana, i.e. 'the place of God') was mentioned by Ctesias, who totally misunderstood the inscription, attributing it to the 'Babylonian' Queen Semiramis and describing it as a dedication to Zeus! In reality, the text is part of the Annals of Emperor Darius I the Great, duly detailing his victory over a rebellion; the Iranian monarch dedicated his triumph to Ahura Mazda. Now, Semiramis seems to be an entirely misplaced Ancient Greek legend about the historical Queen of Assyria (not Babylonia!) Shammuramat. The Assyrian queen was consort of Shamshi Adad V and co-regent with her son Adad-nirari III (during his reign's early phase). But the Assyrian Queen had nothing to do with Mount Behistun and the Achaemenid Iranian inscription.

In the early 17th c., Pietro della Valle was the first Western European to come to Behistun and sketch the remains. As a matter of fact, many European travelers and explorers visited Behistun, saw the impressive inscription, and disastrously misinterpreted it, due to their preconceived ideas, mistaken readings, and unrealistic assumptions.

A foolish English diplomat and adventurer, Robert Sherley, visited the location in 1598, and he considered the astounding reliefs and the inscriptions as 'Christian'! Napoleon's subordinate, General Claude-Matthieu, Comte de Gardane, visited the place in 1807 only to see in the monuments the representation of 'Christ and his twelve apostles'! In 1817, Sir Robert Ker Porter thought that the impressive relief and inscriptions detailed the deeds of Emperor Shalmaneser V of Assyria and the transportation of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel to the NE confines of Assyria. Last, quite interestingly, the German spiritual-scientific society Ahnenerbe, which used Hitler for their non-Nazi, highly secretive projects, explored Behistun in 1938.

7- Early sources of Iranian History: Assyrian-Babylonian Cuneiform  

The early sources of Iranian History are Assyrian-Babylonian historical documents pertaining to the military, commercial and/or administrative activities of the Neo-Assyrian kings in the Zagros mountains and the Iranian plateau; these sources shed light on the earliest stages of Median, Persian and Iranian History, when the ancestors of the Achaemenids were just one of the many tribes that settled somewhere east of the borders of the Assyrian Empire.

Since the 3rd millennium BCE, Sumerian and Akkadian historical sources referred to nomads, settlers, villages, cities, strongholds and at times kingdoms situated in the area of today's Iran. Mainly these tribes and/or realms were barbarians who either partly damaged or totally destroyed the Mesopotamian civilization and order. That's why they were always described with markedly negative terms. On the other hand, we know through archaeological evidence that several important sites were located in the Iranian plateau, constituting either small kingdoms or outstanding entrepôts and commercial centers linking Mesopotamia with either India or Central Asia and China.

For instance, settled somewhere in the Middle Zagros, the Guti of the 3rd millennium BCE constituted a barbaric periphery that finally destroyed Agade (Akkad), the world's first empire ever; and in the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE, the Kassites descended from Middle Zagros to Babylon, after the Old Babylonian kingdom was destroyed (in 1596) by the Hittite Mursilis I, and they set up a profane kingdom (Kassite dynasty of Babylonia) that the Assyrians never accepted as a heir of the old Sumerian-Akkadian civilization.

As both ethnic groups learned Akkadian / Assyrian-Babylonian, their rulers wrote down their names, and thus we know that neither the Guti nor the Kassites were a properly speaking Iranian nation; the present documentation is still scarce in this regard, but there are indications that some of these people bore Turanian (or Turkic) names. 

For thousands of years, South Zagros and the southwestern confines of today's Iran belonged to Elam, the main rival of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria. Viewed as the true negation of the genius of Mesopotamian civilization, Elam was ruled by the 'kings of Shushan and Anshan'; the two regions corresponded to Susa (and the entire province of Khuzestan in today's Iran) and South Zagros respectively. The name that modern scholarship uses to denote this nation and kingdom is merely the Sumerian-Akkadian appellation of that country. In Elamite, the eastern neighbors of the Sumerians called their land 'Haltamti'. Their language was neither Indo-European (like Old Achaemenid and Modern Farsi) nor Semitic (like Assyrian-Babylonian); it was also unrelated to Sumerian, Hurrian and Hattic, the languages of the indigenous populations in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Recent linguistic research offers tentative approaches to the relationship between Elamite and the Dravidian languages, thus making of it the ancestral language of more than 250 million people.

Elamite linear and cuneiform writings bear witness to the life, the society, the economy, the faith and the culture of the Elamites, as well as to their relations with the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians. But they cannot help us reconstitute the History of the Iranian plateau, because the Elamites never went beyond the limits of South Zagros.

With the rise, expansion and prevalence of Assyria (from the 14th to the 7th c. BCE), we have for the first time a Mesopotamian Empire that showed great importance for the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian plateau; consequently, this means that, for the said period, we have more texts about these regions, which earlier constituted the periphery of the Mesopotamian world, but were gradually incorporated into the ever expanding Assyrian Empire. Thanks to Assyrian cuneiform texts, we know names of tribal chieftains and petty kings, cities, fortresses, ethnic groups, etc., and we can assess the various degrees of Assyrianization of each of them; but it is only at the time of Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) that we first find a mention of the Medes and the Persians. The former are named 'Amadaya' and later 'Madaya', whereas the latter are called 'Parsua' (or Parsamaš or Parsumaš).

Assyrian cuneiform texts about the Medes and the Persians more specifically are abundant during the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BCE) and at the time of the Sargonids (722-609 BCE). It is noteworthy that the Parsua were first located in the region of today's Sanandaj in Western Iran and later they relocated to the ancient Elamite region of Anshan (today's Iranian province of Fars), which was devastated and emptied from its population by Assurbanipal (640 BCE). After the great Assyrian victory, which also involved the destruction of Susa, Assyrian texts mention the grandfather of Cyrus the Great, Cyrus I, as Kuraš, king of Parsumaš. He sent gifts to Nineveh and he also dispatched his eldest son ('Arukku' in Assyrian from a hypothetical 'Aryauka' in Ancient Iranian) there - nominally as a hostage, but essentially as a student of Assyrian culture, sacerdotal organization, and imperial administration and procedures.

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

Tiglathpileser III

Sarrukin (Sargon of Assyria) with his son and successor Sennacherib (right)

8- Pre-History in the Iranian plateau, and Mesopotamia

During the 4th, the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCE, the major hitherto excavated Iranian archaeological sites are the following:

Tepe Sialk

Located near the modern city of Kashan, in the center of the Iranian plateau, and excavated in the 1930s by the Russian-French Roman Ghirshman, the site was first occupied in the period 6000-5500 BCE. The remains of the zikkurat (dating back to around 3000 BCE) show that it was the largest Mesopotamian style zikkurat. Tepe Sialk IV level (2nd half of the 4th millennium BCE) testifies to evident links with Sumer (Jemdet Nasr, Uruk) and Elam (Susa III). The site was abandoned and reoccupied in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE (Tepe Sialk V and VI). Its location and the archaeological findings let us understand that the site was a key commercial center that linked Mesopotamia with Central Asia and China.

Tureng Tepe

Located close to Gorgan in Turkmen Sahra (NE Iran) and excavated by the American Frederick Roelker Wulsin in the 1930s and by the French Jean Deshayes in the 1950s, the site was inhabited in the Neolithic and then continually from 3100 to 1900 BCE, when it appears to have been the major among many other regional settlements and in evident contact with both, Mesopotamia and Central Asia. There was a disruption, and the site was occupied again only in the 7th c. BCE (Tureng Tepe IV A) by newcomers.

Tepe Yahya

Located at ca. 250 km north of Bandar Abbas and 220 km south of Kerman, the site was of crucial importance for the contacts between Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley; it was also in contact with Central Asia. Excavated by the Czech-American Clifford Charles Lamberg-Karlovsky, the site was inhabited from ca. 5000 to 2200 BCE and then again after 1000 BCE. The genuine 'Yahya Culture' covered the first half of the 4th millennium BCE. The Proto-Elamite phase started around 3400 BCE (Tepe Yahya IV C); few proto-Elamite tablets have been unearthed from that stratum. This period corresponds to the strata Susa Cb and Tepe Sialk IV. During the 3rd millennium BCE, the site appears to have been the center of production of hard stone carving artifacts; dark stone vessels produced here were found / excavated in Mesopotamia. Similar vessels and fragments of vessels have been found in Sumerian temples in Mesopotamia, in Elam, in the Indus River Valley, and in Central Asia.

Not far from Tepe Yahya are situated several important sites that testify to the strong ties that the entire region had with Sumer and Elam in the West, the Indus River Valley in the East and Central Asia in the North; Jiroft gave the name to the 'Jiroft culture' which is better documented in the nearby site of Konar Sandal and covers the 3rd millennium BCE. Further in the east and close to the triangle border point (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan), Shahr-e Sukhteh was an enormous site which thrived between 3200 BCE and the end of the 3rd millennium BCE. It was associated with both, the 'Jiroft culture' and the Helmand culture, which was attested in several sites in South Afghanistan. Elamite texts were also found in that site, which already offered many surprises, involving the first known artificial eyeball and the earliest tables game with dice.

Several important prehistoric Mesopotamian sites demonstrate parallels and contacts with the aforementioned sites, notably

- Tell Halaf (near Ras al Ayn in NE Syria; the Neolithic phase lasted from 6100 to 5400 BCE, and the Bronze Age covers the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCE),

- Tell al Ubaid (near Ur in Dhi Qar governorate; 6500-3700 BCE),

- Tell Arpachiyah (near Nineveh; the site was occupied in the Neolithic period, like Tell Halaf and Ubaid),

- Tepe Gawra (close to Nineveh; the site was occupied from 5000 to 1500 BCE),

- Tell Jemdet Nasr (near Kish in Central Iraq; 3100-2300 BCE), and

- Uruk {near Samawah in South Iraq; type site for the Uruk period (4000-3100 BCE), it was a major Sumerian kingdom and it was the world's most populated city in the middle of the 4th millennium BCE with ca. 40000 inhabitants and another 90000 residents in the suburbs}.

In the next course, I will present a brief diagram of the History of the Mesopotamian kingdoms and Empires down to Sargon of Assyria – with focus on the relations with Zagros Mountains and the Iranian plateau.

Tepe Sialk

Tureng tepe

Tepe Yahya

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To watch the video (with more than 110 pictures and maps), click the links below:

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

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HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN 1B Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

6- Western Orientalist historiography 7- Early sources of Iranian History: Assyrian-Babylonian Cuneiform 8- Pre-History in the Iranian plate

BitChute

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN 1B / Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

6- Western Orientalist historiography 7- Early sources of Iranian History: Assyrian-Babylonian Cuneiform 8- Pre-History in the Iranian plate

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HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN 1B / Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

6- Western Orientalist historiography 7- Early sources of Iranian History: Assyrian-Babylonian Cuneiform 8- Pre-History in the Iranian plate

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HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN 1B / Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

6- Western Orientalist historiography7- Early sources of Iranian History: Assyrian-Babylonian Cuneiform8- Pre-History in the Iranian plateau

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To listen to the audio, clink the links below:

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN - Achaemenid beginnings 1 (a+b)

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I, Achaemenid beginnings 1A | The Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis’s Podcast

1- Introduction Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran! 2- Iranian Achaemenid historiography A. Achaemenid imperial inscriptions

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1B, Course I – Achaemenid beginnings 1B

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis Outline Western Orientalist historiography; early sources of Iranian History; Prehistory in the Irani

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1B, Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1B

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis Outline Western Orientalist historiography; early sources of Iranian History; Prehistory in the Irani