“If A Man Can Control His Mind He Can Find The Way To Enlightenment, And All Wisdom And Virtue Will

Beyond Afrocentrism: Prerequisites for Somalia to lead African de-colonization and de-Westernization

What follows is the quasi-totality of my response to a Somali scholar, intellectual and activist, who happened to be a very good personal friend since the early 2010s and my days in Somalia. Being a perspicacious reader, my good friend, who originates from two different tribal backgrounds and has an unmatched knowledge of his great but recently (since 1991) beleaguered nation, noticed several recent articles of mine in which I call for a definite and irreversible replacement of the Anglo-French colonial rule in Africa with a genuine, secular African-Chinese-Indian-Russian alliance.

The Great Cat - Horus (Messiah) defeats the Ancient Serpent - Seth (Anti-Messiah); wall painting from the Tomb of Pashedu (TT3) in Deir el Medina (Luxor West)

Afrocentrism will be a total failure if it is thought to be just an African intellectual's thought, idea, theory or ideology. Theorizing is already part of Western intellectuals' falsehood and evildoing. Philosophy is nonsensical, absurd, false and inhuman. There was never 'philosophy' in Africa, because it would be viewed as deviation and decay. Contrarily, in Ancient Africa there were Truth, Transcendental Spirituality, Primordial Myth, World Conceptualization, Supratemporal Eschatology, and Spiritual-Material Synergy. So, the primary tasks of African Afrocentric intellectuals involve the irrevocable obliteration of all Western terms and their replacement with Oriental African concepts, notions, terms, values and virtues. Consequently, there cannot be "an Afrocentric University", because this term follows a Western pattern. Offering herewith an example, I suggest that every institution in which African students will learn the truth should be called after the Ancient Egyptian term "the Place of Truth" and the instructors "Servants in the Place of Truth". This title was associated at the time with all the great scholars specializing in mummification and in the preparation of the human soul for the Hereafter. However, this has always been the value of life, learning and knowledge according to all the varieties of African culture: material life is subject to moral judgments that enable us to gain eternal life.

Contents

Introduction

I. Decolonization and the failure of the Afrocentric Intelligentsia

II. Afrocentric African scholars should have been taken Egyptology back from the Western Orientalists and Africanists 

III. Western Usurpation of African Heritage must be canceled.

IV. Afrocentrism had to encompass severe criticism and total rejection of the so-called Western Civilization

V. Afrocentrism as a form of African Isolationism drawing a line of separation between colonized nations in Africa and Asia

VI. General estimation of the human resources, the time, and the cost needed

VII. Decolonization means above all De-Anglicization and De-Francization

Introduction

Realizing what is at stake and being well acquainted with earlier African attempts for a final decolonization (notably the intellectual-academic sphere of Afrocentrism and the political activists of African Renaissance), my friend, who has the same age with me and who studied, lived, worked and prospered in the USSR, Canada, Yemen and Pakistan, wrote to ask me how Somalia could eventually contribute to or lead the African decolonization and de-Westernization movement, thus taking the Black Continent to the next stage and justifying the great expectations that were created across Africa back in 1960, due to the independence and the unification (of only two out of the five parts) of Somalia.

At this point, I have to add that the present response is only the first of three letters that I planned to send to my friend. The urgent need for worldwide decolonization and de-Westernization has become a major issue for great nations, organizations and alliances, like the BRICS+. Many people across the world would therefore question the entire conversation, stating that presently Somalia is too small, too weak, and too disunited in order to possibly undertake international tasks that seem to be best suited rather to some of the world's leading states.

I believe that, although this approach may be shared by many people, it is ostensibly very shallow. This is so because stronger a nation is, more difficult it becomes for their rulers, elites, and people to undertake an in-depth self-criticism, reassessment, and restart or partly rectification. In other words, a better organized nation is by definition more conservative and therefore less inclined to changes; these traits and conditions have been attested repeatedly throughout History.

Consequently, when it comes to colonization and Westernization, self-scrutiny must be very deep, and this -at the national level- can be extremely painful. That is why, in Russia, de-Westernization will be a far more difficult process to be carried out than in India.

Taken into consideration that Westernization (not only behavioral-cultural but mainly educational-academic-intellectual) is tantamount to alteration, corruption and degeneration, one has to underscore at this point that national identity is not necessarily proportionate to national independence. It is quite possible that an educationally-academically-intellectually corrupted nation, although in possession of an independent state, has minimal national consciousness (because of their entirely Westernized education), whereas an enslaved nation struggling to achieve national independence may have fully preserved their national identity and intellectual originality.

Back in January 2021, I explained exactly this to an Oromo friend, who wrote to ask me why Egypt does not help the Oromo liberation movements achieve national independence for Oromia and in the process demolish the obsolete and genocidal state of Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia). Egypt is an independent state without national consciousness of historicity whereas the Oromos are a non-independent nation with emphatically strong Cushitic national identity and cultural originality. It took me a series of five articles to fully respond at the time; in the last article of the series, one can find titles of and links to the earlier parts:

academia.edu

Contrary to Oromos & Somalis, the Masriyin (Christian or Muslim Egyptians), as subjects of the Mamluks and the French, have had no National

First published on 28th January 2021 here: https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2021/01/28/contrary-to-oromos-somalis-the-masriyin-christian-o

I expand on these topics, because there is a multitude of parameters in the much needed effort of African decolonization and educational-academic-intellectual de-Westernization. To offer an example, I have to say that even the nefarious term "university" (from the Latin "universitas") cannot be possibly accepted by all those who -in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America- seek decolonization, de-Westernization, and restoration of the ancestral values, moral standards, cultural integrity, and academic-educational traditions. This is however discussed in a second letter dispatched to my friend. Last, in a third letter, I examine a number of major issues around which the refutation of the Western colonial forgery and pseudo-historical doctrine will have to revolve.

---------------------- Letter to a Somali friend -----------------------

Thank you for the opportunity you offer me to write down my observations, perceptions, reflections, and conclusions on the topic under discussion!

I. Decolonization and the failure of the Afrocentric Intelligentsia

Several educational, academic, intellectual and political efforts have been undertaken over the past six (6) decades in order to take Africa out of the disastrous and heavy, colonial impact and to help the various nations of the Black Continent achieve national identity, cultural integrity, and ultimate liberation from the Western yoke.

Explaining why the Afrocentric African intellectuals failed (or at least they did not meet the early enthusiastic expectations) necessitates an extremely lengthy treatise the size of an encyclopedia; however, at this moment, I have to pinpoint the crucial mistakes made by the leading figures of the movement that became known as Afrocentrism.

To offer beforehand a recapitulative judgment, I would say that they all viewed their tasks within a far narrower context, thus minimizing the extent of the work that lies ahead.

They did not realize the importance of inter-African concertation, reciprocal knowledge, and systematized cooperation.

They failed to evaluate the extent to which they all have been altered, Westernized, and alienated from their t=roots.

They did not examine how sick, absurd, criminal, and inhuman the Western world was - even before colonizing Africa and other parts of the world.

And they did not consider as their priority to contact other colonized nations in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, to exchange descriptions of common experience, and to decide about their much needed common struggle and decolonization effort.

II. Afrocentric African scholars should have been taken Egyptology back from the Western Orientalists and Africanists 

First and foremost, their overall mental and intellectual endeavor was utterly wrong, misplaced, upended, and factitious. Although this statement seems to be extremely disappointing and perhaps even unfair, it is not. When people like Cheikh Anta Diop and Molefi Kete Asante decided to oppose the colonial powers and their historical distortions by means of Afrocentrism, they acted (without even understanding it) as typical Western intellectuals or philosophers.  

The Afrocentric African intellectuals thought that their own African culture could give them the foremost insignia of originality, but this was a wrong assumption. Unfortunately, they never questioned their authenticity and they failed to notice that they had already been exposed to overwhelming colonial impact at the mental, intellectual, educational, academic and scientific levels. So, they did not even imagine that they had first to methodically filter their mindsets, concepts and beliefs, and to remove the clutter. They did not realize that they had first to thoroughly study in-depth Egyptian hieroglyphics, Ancient Egyptian civilization, and the History of Egypt down to Modern Times in order to have access to the foremost African past.  

This would not be an easy task, because they would have to take Egyptological courses mainly in French- or English-speaking countries (or alternatively in Italy, Germany, Russia, Austria, Poland or Egypt - without however major differences in the syllabus, methodology or apparoach). In these countries' academic institutions, their professors would teach and propagate the compact, pseudo-historical dogma, which has progressively covered all sectors of Humanities and which was geared in order to historically legitimize and consolidate the Western colonial power at the educational, intellectual, and academic levels. This Western historical forgery is at the origin of every colonial evildoing, because it stipulates the preposterous Western supremacy, it defines the cruel and inhuman West as 'the realm of civilization', it denigrates all the other great nations (not only Africans) as barbarians, and it offers to the Western gangsters the foremost pretext to colonize the world.

So, as Afrocentric African students, they would have to meticulously search, find out, and identify -in the manuals that they would study and in the courses that they would attend- endless inaccuracies, deliberate errors, obvious lies, and a multitude of techniques geared by Western Egyptologists in order to distort the historical truth and to adjust all newly found data to the arbitrarily preconceived and shamelessly pronounced diagram of World Pseudo-History that the evil intellectuals of Western European Renaissance composed in the 15th and the 16th centuries, before sending their heinous, anti-Christian, barbarian and racist conquistadors and rascals to invade the rest of the world and carry out unstoppable series of genocides.

This means that, instead of blindly accepting their Western professors' assumptions and teachings, the Afrocentric African students of Western Egyptologists should scrutinize every single word, argumentation, conclusion, pretension, interpretation, lecture and publication of their professors, denounce -point by point- every single case of falsehood or deliberate distortion, and reject the Western Egyptology across the board.  

The task of the first Afrocentric African Egyptologists would be immense, involving

a) the publication of encyclopedias and books, academic periodicals, and secondary education manuals, and

b) extensive activities in terms of science popularization in newspapers, reviews, movies and TV programs – all available in many African languages, not in French and English.

All the criminal lies of the Western Eurocentric Egyptologists should be ferociously denounced, whereas Egypt, Sudan and Libya should be persuasively asked by all the other African states to effectively ban every Western European, Australian, and North American Egyptologist and Egyptological mission member, who did not denounce the fallacies of Eurocentrism, Judeo-Christian tradition, Greco-Roman civilization, Hellenism, Classicism and Renaissance. 

To give you an approximate idea, if the aforementioned development had taken place at the time, by now there would have been formed several hundreds of Afrocentric African Egyptologists teaching factual, truthful and unadulterated Egyptology in more than a hundred universities across the Black Continent. You certainly can fathom what a devastating blow against the Western European and North American colonial academia this development would have been.

Contrarily to this indispensable task and inevitable priority, the first Afrocentric African Egyptologists were merely theorizing in a most harmless manner, while having a very shallow understanding of Ancient Egypt. As a matter of fact, they never challenged, let alone endangered, the academic, educational and intellectual interests and biases of the Western colonial elites. Even worse, they intended to make political use of the Ancient Egyptian heritage; but this was really calamitous because "politics" is an entirely Modern Western fabrication that did not exist in the past in Africa, Asia or Europe. There will never be decolonization with politics anywhere, because there was no politics before the colonial era.  

More importantly, the aforementioned approach, which applies to Egyptology, should have also been followed in all the other sectors of Humanities that concern Pre-Islamic Africa, namely Meroitic-Cushitic Studies, Axumite Abyssinian Studies (to best document the Yemenite, non-African, origin of the Axumites), Punt and Ancient Somali Studies, Punic (Carthaginian) Studies, Libyco-Berber Studies, Late Antiquity Africa, and African Christianity.

III. Western Usurpation of African Heritage must be canceled.

In addition to the aforementioned, the Afrocentric African Egyptologists should undertake another, turly enormous endeavor, namely the ultimate denunciation and the irrevocable cancellation of the Western usurpation of a sizeable part of African and Asiatic historical heritage. Example:

Plotinus (204-270), who was an Egyptian mystic, erudite scholar, and spiritual master, has been distortedly named as "Greek Platonist philosopher" by the racist, colonial forgers of Western universities; but Plotinus was born in today's Asyut (Zawty in Egyptian Hieroglyphics; Syowt in Coptic; Lycopolis in Ancient Greek) in Central Egypt. He was an Egyptian, and his spiritual doctrine was entirely Egyptian; Plotinus wrote in Ancient Greek only to further propagate his knowledge, wisdom and world conceptualization, but his knowledge of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics is unquestionable.

Would it be therefore normal to consider an African American as an Anglo-Saxon only because he writes in English?

Many non-specialists may wish to formulate another question about Plotinus:

Why do then Western forgers call Plotinus "a Platonist philosopher"?

This is simple to answer.

Plato had traveled and studied in Egypt; in fact, his theories and world views are not his, but have derived from well-known, fundamental Ancient Egyptian concepts of transcendental knowledge, spirituality, moral, and world conceptualization. The underlying nature of Plato's so-called philosophy is the Ancient Egyptian Iwnw (Heliopolitan) dogma (also called among Greeks as "the Ennead"), i.e. one of the most influential religions of Ancient Egypt, which progressively spread throughout the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. So, Plotinus is a valuable part of Ancient African heritage that has been usurped after it was labeled "Greek" by the racist and criminal French, English and American academics and forgers.

Another example is offered by Porphyry of Tyre (234-305), Plotinus' student; he was a Phoenician spiritual master, cosmologist, mathematician, intellectual, debater, and author. Although Assyrian-Babylonian spirituality, science and wisdom are evident in his works, Western academic fraudsters still call him "Neo-platonic philosopher", which is another blatant case of Western usurpation of Oriental Asiatic heritage.  

There is nothing "Greek", nothing "European", and nothing "Western", in the highly valuable works of those great spiritual mystics and erudite scholars; they were genuinely Oriental, either African or Asiatic. But faithless, atheist, and materialist forgers of the Western universities have ludicrously labeled all these great masters "philosophers", thus propagating the use of a profane word, which during the Antiquity was of low connotation, because it was in straight opposition to words such as "wise", "sacred", "venerated", "pious", and "consecrated".

Compared to the high priests of Egypt, Cush/Meroe, Punt/Somalia, Carthage, Phoenicia, Assyria and Iran, the so-called Ancient Greek and Roman "philosophers" constituted villainous and degenerate evildoers. The profanity of those corrupt, obscene and barbarian malefactors (like the Epicureans) is beyond description, as they pretended that Man has the right to perform all the absurd crimes and the most repugnant sins if this is 'good' for his sensual pleasures.    

No Afrocentric African Egyptologists and Africanists will ever do good service to the Black Continent, their national identity, their cultural integrity, and the values and virtues of their ancestors, if they do not irrevocably reject the Western usurpation of Oriental heritage; actually, it is their obligation to irreversibly eradicate the last shred of Western impact on African education, academic knowledge, intellectual life, and moral tradition.  

IV. Afrocentrism had to encompass severe criticism and total rejection of the so-called Western Civilization

Second, the overall mental and intellectual endeavor of the Afrocentric African intellectuals was definitely incomplete. Not only they did not study Egyptology to acquire access into the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic sources that constitute the utmost African originality, but they also failed to duly explore, analyze and criticize the Modern Western world. All the same, they would have two major tasks in this regard; more specifically, they had to first, evaluate the Western world on the basis of their own African criteria and values, and second, publish their argumentations, evaluations, and conclusions.   

As a matter of fact, they had to ultimately investigate the so-called Western world per se, identify its nature and origin, describe the process of its fabrication, denounce its unreliability and inhumanity, and discredit the Western intellectuals' conclusions, assumptions, pretensions, and fake stories. In other words, they had to effectively check whether the so-called Western world was anything more than spiritual corruption, deliberate alteration, and degenerate disfigurement of a part of the Ancient Oriental world.

This is a very critical point; although no Afrocentric African Egyptologists and Africanists have been formed until now (in order to subsequently re-establish an Afrocentric version of Egyptology and of several other related fields of Humanities), African universities have been flooded with numerous types of absurd, preposterous Western propaganda, notably the academic fields of French Literature, Art, History and Culture, English Literature, Art, History and Culture, Italian Literature, Art, History and Culture, Modern European Philosophy, etc.

All these fields have been accepted and developed in African universities; and the contents of numerous syllabuses were instructed to African students on African soil. This was carried out very thoughtlessly and extremely disastrously. Due to this situation, a great number of texts written by Western poets, playwrights, authors, philosophers and others were diffused among African populations. This means that immoral concepts, evil plots, inhuman stories, criminal ideas, vicious thoughts, counterfeit values, and execrable vices made their way into the hearts and the minds of millions of innocent Africans, fully corrupting them and effectively destroying their culture. This very deceitful and extremely pernicious method made many Africans unconsciously accept what would be impermissible for their parents' and ancestors' standards, values, and measures to tolerate.  

It is most unfortunate that the Afrocentric intelligentsia of Africa failed to make it clear that no Western European and Northern American text can be taught, studied, printed or diffused on African soil, if it does not comprehensively comply with African values, virtues and traditions. Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, William Shakespeare, François Rabelais, Joachim du Bellay, Montesquieu, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Rudyard Kipling, Albert Camus, Agatha Christie, and scores of other supposedly important, valuable or even acceptable authors are absolutely pathetic and worthless when evaluated as per African moral values, measures and cultural criteria.

In fact, most of these pathetic, anomalous and evil individuals were heinous fanatics, paranoid fraudsters, and abhorrent sinners, who carried out crimes, propagated evildoing, despised their fellow countrymen, and promoted immoral manners and unethical behavior. They were abnormal to the extent of loathing and reviling the Christian culture of the societies in which they belonged and which they wanted to destroy. Clearly, there is only one reason for which Agatha Christie's novels (to offer an example) could be accepted as a study topic in African universities: in order to castigate the evil plot and to articulate a devastating critique of English Literature on the basis of African moral considerations, traditional values, and literary standards.

V. Afrocentrism as a form of African Isolationism drawing a line of separation between colonized nations in Africa and Asia

Third, the overall mental and intellectual endeavor of the Afrocentric African intellectuals proved also to be disturbingly egocentric; this is due to the fact that the interpretation of their approach leads us to the conclusion that they considered the colonial wrongdoings as necessary to eliminate only from Africa. In other words, they failed to notice that Africa was only one of the colonial powers' targeted lands or continents and that the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the English, the French, the Dutch, and the Belgians also colonized vast territories in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Last, they did not take into account that the Western colonial practices have been continued by several derivative states of the colonial powers, notably the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.

It would however be very helpful for all the Afrocentric African intellectuals to examine how the Ottoman Empire (one of African History's largest empires), Iran, the Mughal Empire of India, China, and even Russia were systematically and incessantly targeted by the colonial empires of the West. Furthermore, it would be very useful for those intellectuals to observe and assess that, for the colonial powers, the military occupation or the political dependence of a land, nation or kingdom is not the only means of effectively impacting a colony and introducing it into the colonial metropolis' sphere of influence.

Russia was never occupied militarily by the Western colonial powers, but from the beginning of the 18th c., the Romanov dynasty was targeted with a sophisticated and multifaceted process of Westernization (Europeanization) to which many Russian nobles, clerics and intellectuals reacted ferociously. It is quite telling that the Imperial Russian elite was successfully dragged to the extent of becoming an ally of the atheist and profane state of France (instead of naturally siding with Germany and Austria-Hungary), only to be exhausted in WW I, defeated by the Germans, and replaced by the Communists, who were totally alien to Russian culture.

This shows that to best serve African nations' interests and anticolonial vocation, the Afrocentric intelligentsia of Africa should enlarge their horizons, see Africa as only one colonially targeted land or continent, and enrich their knowledge and experience with the study of non-African civilizations, lands and nations that have also been colonized by the Western colonial powers. No one can possibly assess the historical distortions made by the Western academics during the formulation of their bogus-historical dogma, without duly delving into numerous fields of Humanities and fully checking endless inaccuracies, deliberate errors, obvious lies and a multitude of techniques geared by Western scholars in fields like Assyriology, Hittitology, Iranology, Biblical Studies, Indology, Islamology, Turkology, Slavic and Russian Studies, and Sinology.

VI. General estimation of the human resources, the time, and the cost needed

The aforementioned criticism may now help as a guideline for the future; what was not achieved in the past can be attempted now. Presently, perhaps the international context is more favorable to such an effort. Speaking for a middle-size African state, such as Algeria (in guise of an example), the effort to launch numerous sectors of Humanities, as new academic fields entirely free of colonial falsehood and distortion, would not be difficult to undertake. All the same, it would certainly demand perfect conceptualization of the commendable objective and proper contextualization within the international community. As it consists in a project of national and all-African dimensions, it should be placed under central (governmental) guidance and supervision.

It goes without saying that a project this important would also involve fully committed students, who would be absolutely conscious of the national and all-African character of the undertaking, and of their role in it. They should first be prepared during a 3 or 4-year syllabus (leading to a B.A.) and then financially supported during their graduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies. They should finally be committed to

a) returning to their 'alma mater',

b) being appointed there, and

c) launching a new department of studies in the sector in which they would have already been specialized.

To give an estimate, this national and all-African project (covering sectors named or insinuated in the aforementioned parts II, III, IV and V) would encompass around 50 (fifty) different sectors of Humanities. Selecting 10 (ten) genuinely interested and devoted students, who would be ready to specialize in the designated fields and return to be employed, means a total of 500 students, i.e. 500 scholarships for 10 years, and one secretariat in order to adequately administer the whole project. For a country like Eritrea or Mauritania, this would certainly be difficult to undertake, but for Algeria it is affordable. It would not exceed 100 million US$ for the entire period (including also the infrastructure and the establishment of basic libraries).

It would not only be a historic investment in terms of National and All-African Education, but it would also constitute a formerly colonized nation's most radical, resolute and drastic step out of the colonial era. In other words, in 15 (fifteen) years, an effort of such magnitude would bring forth results that would be exponentially greater than what the reputed Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana achieved in more than 60 years (it was incepted in 1962).

VII. Decolonization means above all De-Anglicization and De-Francization

The previous paragraphs contain a brief criticism of the Afrocentric movement and at the same time reveal why it failed to bring forth substantive results. As a matter of fact, it should have started with an in-depth effort of self-knowledge. Today, in reality, Africans do not know one another, and if they do, this happens at a so superficial level that it is insignificant. This is exactly what I wrote before more than 10 years in a presentation which was widely publicized in Nigeria:

academia.edu

AFRICAN RENAISSANCE UNIVERSITY A VISION

Proposals for the establishment of the first Afrocentric University in Africa

There is no African unity, no African identity, and no African interconnection, when Africans need colonial nations' languages (English and French) to communicate with one another. In this regard, it is essential at this point to highlight that the current political appearance and the political map of Africa are also of entirely colonial nature; it is what the colonial powers wanted to impose on the Black Continent. That's why it cannot be taken seriously into account.   

Any genuine and integer African cannot accept the colonial falsehood as per which Arabic is the main language throughout North Africa. This 'happens' only according to the Orientalist falsehood and due to colonial involvement and interference. In reality, Berber (Amazigh) is the main language throughout North Africa, and all the Africans, who deny this reality, are -quite unfortunately- victims of the colonial powers and of the delusion that European Orientalist and Africanist academics methodically created in order to effectively prevent Africans from achieving true nation building. Then, this implies that there should be Departments of Berber Language and Culture in at least 15 African countries. A Hausa-speaking Nigerian, a Somali, and a Swahili-speaking Kenyan should have the chance (in the perspective of 15 years after the beginning of the herein described educational-academic-intellectual decolonization project in their respective countries) of learning Berber in their high school. Similarly, an Algerian, a Moroccan, a Tunisian or a Libyan should have the chance of learning Hausa, Somali or Swahili in their relevant high schools.

More than 10 million people in Egypt are Copts; for a real African and Afrocentric thinker, the absence of Departments of Coptic Language, Literature and Theology is one of the worst results of the colonial rule throughout Africa. Somalia is an entirely Muslim country; yet, a Department of Coptology would be necessary in Somalia, because only then all the Somalis would understand the historical dependence of the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinians on the Copts, the existing differences between the Amhara and the Copts of Egypt, the pseudo-Christian nature of the Amhara, the reason for which the Christian Orthodox Oromos rejected to have any connection with the Amhara and were (few years ago) directly connected to Copts (the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria), and many other similar issues.

To underscore few specific points around which Somali Education, Academic Research, and National Building become one unitary endeavor, I would say the following: if the Amhara tribe and the Abyssinian colonial state proved to be a serious problem and a real threat for Somalia and the Somalis, it is then a national obligation of the Somali government to form a small force of academic specialists, who by studying and learning Coptic language, Coptic cult, Coptic theology, and History of the Coptic Church, will be able to advise correctly on all topics related to the Amhara Abyssinians and to the reason of their hatred of Somalia, Egypt, Islam, and Coptic Christianity. Furthermore, these Somali scholars will be able to unveil to many other Christian Africans the anti-Christian nature of the Amhara and their leaders.

For this to happen, after a first 3 or 4-year curriculum (leading to a B.A.), a Somali graduate should first choose this field as the main objective of his professional academic career; at the same time, he will have to be fully conscious of the fact that his desire to study Coptic in Egypt, specialize in Coptology, and become an expert on the matter does not constitute only his own career choice, but it is also a matter of national importance for Somalia. For this to be confirmed, governmental scholarships will have to be announced and offered for a certain number of years. 

A certain perspective has to be given to similar projects leading to the preparation and the launching of a Department of Coptology in Somalia. As I already said at the end of part VI), if we calculate a) the first circle of studies that will lead to a B.A. in Somalia (during which the selection of one or two candidates for specific scholarship for Coptic Studies will take place), b) the postgraduate & doctoral studies (5-7 years) that the Somali graduates will undertake, and c) their return to Somalia in order to launch for the first time a Department of Coptology, it will take ca. 10 years until the state of Somalia establishes a pertinent educational-academic foundation in this regard.

If this is what is needed for the launching of Coptic Studies in Somalia, similar effort has to be deployed for the establishment of many other sectors of Humanities. It will be a matter of Somali students' commitment and Somali government's investment in a national and all-African cause.

---------

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Beyond Afrocentrism: Prerequisites for Somalia to lead African de-colonization and de-Westernization

За пределами афроцентризма: предпосылки для того, чтобы Сомали возглавила африканскую деколонизацию и девестернизацию What follows is the qu

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Beyond Afrocentrism: Prerequisites for Somalia to lead African de-colonization and de-Westernization

За пределами афроцентризма: предпосылки для того, чтобы Сомали возглавила африканскую деколонизацию и девестернизацию Содержание Введение I.

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Ancient interior in Armenia

Many call it the most beautiful pool in history. Azure Blue indoor pool at Hearst Castle, completed 1934. Architect Julia Morgan

Painted tile. Iran. 19th Century CE.

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

Scythian mummy tomb (Fifth Pazyryk Kurgan), Pazyryk culture 3rd C. BCE. More pictures on my blog, link at bottom.

"The pair were buried alongside nine horses, a huge cache of cannabis and a stash of priceless treasures - including the world's oldest carpet and an ornate carriage.

The man had curly hair and was aged between 55 and 60 when he died, whilst the woman was about ten years younger.

It is believed he was a chieftain or king of the Pazyryk civilisation, which lived in Kazakhstan, Siberia and Mongolia from the 6th to 3rd centuries BC."

...

"The attractive log cabin was a prefabricated construction by the prehistoric Pazyryk culture to house an elite tomb - in which was buried a mummified curly-haired potentate and his younger wife or concubine.

The mound in the Altai Mountains was originally 42 metres in diameter, and this tattooed couple went to the next life alongside nine geldings, saddled and harnessed.

The house itself, recently reconstructed, was not built as a dwelling but nevertheless is seen by archeologists as showing the style of domestic architecture more than two millennia ago.

This structure was the outer of two wooden houses in the large burial mound in the valley of the River Bolshoy Ulagan at an altitude of around 1,600 metres above sea level.

The core of the mound including the ice-preserved bodies of the elite couple had been excavated by Soviet archeologists in 1949, and many of the finds are on on display in the world famous State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

As we have previously written, the pair - who owned perhaps the world’s oldest carpets - are currently undergoing an ultra modern medical scan to establish the cause of death, and reconstruct the appearance of the ancient pair, and to study the techniques of mummification in more detail.

Yet in 1949 this fascinating house was left in the permafrost ground - and only retrieved now from the so-called Fifth Pazyryk Barrow, to the excitement of archeologists.

Head of the excavation Dr Nikita Konstantinov from Gorno-Altaisk State University, was full of admiration about the skills of the ancient craftsmen.

‘We took out the log house and reassembled it right next to the mound,’ he said.

‘We made kind of express reconstruction, which made it possible to study the log house in detail.

‘Notches were made on each of its logs - building marks…’.

This was like IKEA instructions today for building their products, telling modern day excavation volunteers how to correctly construct the prehistoric building kit.

The result is seen in the pictures shown here.

‘This log house was first built somewhere away from the mound, then it was dismantled, brought and reassembled in the pit,’ said Dr Konstantinov.

‘Today we build in similar way, using Roman numerals, as a rule.

‘In those times they simply made different numbers of notches.’

The archeological team followed the code left by the ancient craftsmen and reassembled the house without problems.

‘The Pazyryks knitted the corners of the building in a masterly way and chopped the attachment points of these logs.

‘They fitted very cleanly….

‘When we built the log house and began to measure the height, it turned out that the height difference in the angles is only one centimetre.’

In modern constructions, a difference of 7 cm is allowed which showed how skilful were the ancient craftsmen.

He said: ‘This is a funerary structure, but we can say with a high degree of probability that the log cabin was created in the image and likeness of the houses in which the Pazyryks lived."

-taken from siberiantimes and thesun

paganimagevault.blogspot.com

Scythian mummy tomb (Fifth Pazyryk Kurgan), Pazyryk culture 4th-3rd C. BCE

Nubianization of the Cushites, Linguistic Denigration of Berbers, Denial of Hamitic Identity

Nubianization of the Cushites, Linguistic Denigration of Berbers, Denial of Hamitic Identity: the Next Genocide in Africa   

By Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Speaking at the 5th Annual Conference of the Network of Oromo Studies (NOS), which took place on 27th February 2021 on Visual Technology, I exposed one more Western colonial distortion, falsification and machination; the title of my speech was: "Fake Nubia: a Colonial Forgery to deprive Cushitic Nations from National Independence, Historical Identity and Cultural Heritage".

The text of my contribution was published without the notes here:

academia.edu

Fake Nubia: a Colonial Forgery to deprive Cushitic Nations from National Independence, Historical Identity and Cultural Heritage

The text below is my speech at the 5th Annual Conference of the Network of Oromo Studies (NOS), which took place on 27th February 2021 on Vi

I herewith publish the first two notes of my speech; they constitute a brief but direct denunciation of the major Western anti-African forgeries, namely

- the Nubianization of the East African Cushites and of their historical past and heritage,

- the disparagement of the Berbers, and

- the denial of the existence of the Hamites.

Although short, this text provides readers with a comprehensive insight into the evil, racist and systematic efforts of distortion of the African past by the Anglo-French and the American criminal fraudsters and biased pseudo-academics.

-----------------------------------------    

Read and download the 3000-word text here:

Continental Empires

Nubianization of the Cushites, Linguistic Denigration of Berbers, Denial of Hamitic Identity: the Next Genocide in Africa

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

and

historikon.substack.com

Nubianization of the Cushites, Linguistic Denigration of Berbers, Denial of Hamitic Identity: the Next Genocide in Africa

By Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ: Σταυρόσχημοι Λαξευτοί Τάφοι των Αχαιμενιδών & Ανάγλυφο του Βαλεριανού, Αιχμάλωτου Ρωμαίου Αυτοκράτορα, Γονατιστού προ του Έφιππου Σαπούρ Α’ (240-270)

Naqsh-e Rustam: Cruciform Carved Tombs of the Achaemenid Dynasty & Relief of the Roman Emperor Valerian Captive and Kneeling before Emperor Shapur I (240-270)

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

Το κείμενο του κ. Νίκου Μπαϋρακτάρη είχε αρχικά δημοσιευθεί την 19 Σεπτεμβρίου 2019. Στο κείμενό του αυτό, ο κ. Μπαϋρακτάρης παρουσιάζει όψεις της διαχρονικής σημασίας της αχαιμενιδικής νεκρόπολης του Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ, βασιζόμενος σε στοιχεία τα οποία παρέθεσα σε διάλεξή μου στο Καζακστάν (τον Ιανουάριο του 2019) σχετικά με την εσχατολογική σημασία ορισμένων ιερών χώρων του Ιράν.

https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/09/19/ναξ-ε-ρουστάμ-σταυρόσχημοι-λαξευτοί-τ/ ================

Οι Ρωμιοί της Ανατολής – Greeks of the Orient

Ρωμιοσύνη, Ρωμανία, Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία

Πολύ πιο εντυπωσιακό από την κοντινή (10 χμ) Περσέπολη είναι το απόμακρο Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ (نقش رستم / Naqsh-e Rostam / Накше-Рустам, δηλαδή ‘η Εικόνα του Ρουστάμ’, ενός Ιρανού μυθικού ήρωα), ένας κορυφαίος προϊσλαμικός ιρανικός αρχαιολογικός χώρος που τα πελώρια μνημεία του, λαξευτά στον βράχο, ανάγλυφα ή οικοδομημένα αυτοτελώς, καλύπτουν 1200 χρόνια Ιστορίας του Ιράν, από την αρχή των Αχαιμενιδών (Χαχαμανεσιάν / 550-330 π.Χ.) μέχρι το τέλος των Σασανιδών (Σασανιάν / 224-651 μ.Χ.)

Εδώ βρισκόμαστε στα ιερά και τα όσια των Αχαιμενιδών: ο επιβλητικός βράχος λαξεύτηκε επανειλημμένα για να χρησιμεύσει ως αχαιμενιδική νεκρόπολη. Είναι αλήθεια ότι οι Πάρθες, οι οποίοι αποσχίσθηκαν από την Συρία των Σελευκιδών (το μεγαλύτερο κράτος των Επιγόνων) το 250 π.Χ. κι έστησαν την μακροβιώτερη ιρανική προϊσλαμική δυναστεία (τους Αρσακίδες – Ασκανιάν: 250 π.Χ. – 224 μ.Χ.), δεν ένοιωσαν κανένα δεσμό με τον συγκεκριμένο χώρο και δεν ανήγειραν κανένα μνημείο στην περιοχή. Άλλωστε, η Περσέπολη παρέμεινε πάντοτε εγκαταλελειμένη μετά την καταστροφή της από τον Μεγάλο Αλέξανδρο.

Και το Ιστάχρ, η μεγάλη σασανιδική πρωτεύουσα που είναι επίσης κοντά, ήταν μια μικρή πόλη, η οποία απέκτησε ισχύ μόνον μετά την άνοδο των Σασανιδών. Ουσιαστικά, για να αντλήσουν πειστήρια ιρανικής αυθεντικότητας και ζωροαστρικής ορθοδοξίας, οι Σασανίδες απέδωσαν εξαιρετικές τιμές στους σημαντικούς αχαιμενιδικούς χώρους δείχνοντας έτσι ότι επρόκειτο για ένα είδος επανάκαμψης ή παλινόστησης.

Για να επισκεφθεί κάποιος το Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ, το Ιστάχρ και την Περσέπολη σήμερα, πρέπει μάλλον να μείνει στην Σιράζ (شیراز / Shiraz / Шираз) που απέχει περίπου 40 χμ και είναι σήμερα η πέμπτη μεγαλύτερη πόλη του Ιράν και η πρωτεύουσα της επαρχίας Φαρς, δηλαδή της καθαυτό Περσίας. Αυτό είναι μια ακόμη απόδειξη του γεγονότος ότι κάνουν τρομερό λάθος όσοι Έλληνες από άγνοια αποκαλούν το Ιράν ‘Περσία’. Η Περσία είναι μόνον μια επαρχία του Ιράν κι οι Πέρσες είναι ένα μόνον από τα έθνη του Ιράν. Κι έτσι ήταν πάντα – για πάνω από 2500 χρόνια Ιστορίας του Ιράν. Η Σιράζ ήταν η πρωτεύουσα των ισλαμικών δυναστειών των Σαφαριδών και των Βουγιδών (Μπουαϊχί) που αποσπάσθηκαν από το Αβασιδικό Χαλιφάτο της Βαγδάτης στο δεύτερο μισό του 9ου χριστιανικού αιώνα.

Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ (Νουπιστάς/Nupistaš στα Αρχαία Αχαιμενιδικά)

Οι λαξευτοί αχαιμενιδικοί τάφοι στο Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ είναι ορατοί από χιλιόμετρα μακριά κι ένας ταξιδιώτης τους επισκέπτεται καλύτερα (με άπλετο φως και χωρίς σκιές) το μεσημέρι, καθώς οι προσόψεις των πελωρίων διαστάσεων λαξευτών τάφων στρέφονται προς τα νότια, καθώς ο τεράστιος βραχώδης λόφος έχει διάταξη από ανατολικά προς δυτικά.

Δεν κάνω μια τυπική αρχαιολογική παρουσίαση για να δώσω τις διαστάσεις με λεπτομέρειες, γι’ αυτό σημειώνω εδώ μόνον ενδεικτικά στοιχεία για τον τάφο του Δαρείου του Μεγάλου: η απόσταση του χαμηλότερου επιπέδου της πρόσοψης του τάφου από το έδαφος μπροστά σ’ αυτό (όπου στέκονται οι επισκέπτες του χώρου) είναι περίπου 15 μ.

Αυτό σημαίνει ότι όλοι οι τάφοι είναι υπερυψωμένοι κι έτσι λαξεύθηκαν και φιλοτεχνήθηκαν. Το ύψος της σταυρόσχημης πρόσοψης είναι 23 μ περίπου και η απόαταση του υψηλότερου επιπέδου της πρόσοψης του τάφου από την κορυφή του βραχώδους λόφου είναι σχεδόν 26 μ.

Η υπεράνω του κεντρικού τμήματος της σταυρόσχημης πρόσοψης πλευρά έχει ύψος περίπου 8.50 μ. Η υποκάτω του κεντρικού τμήματος της σταυρόσχημης πρόσοψης πλευρά έχει ύψος περίπου 6.80 μ. Το πλάτος των πλευρών αυτών είναι το ίδιο, περίπου 10.90 μ. Η λαξευτή αίθουσα του τάφου έχει μήκος (: βάθος μέσα στον βράχο) 18.70 μ, πλάτος 2.10 μ, και ύψος 3.70 μ. Περίπου 350 μ3 βράχου ανεσκάφησαν για να δημιουργηθεί η κοιλότητα η οποία διαμορφώθηκε ως ταφική αίθουσα, χωρισμένη σε τρία τμήματα.

Το Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ είχε κατοικηθεί ως χώρος για τουλάχιστον μια χιλιετία πριν φθάσουν οι Πέρσες στην περιοχή αυτή του Ιράν. Οι πρώτοι κάτοικοι δεν είχαν καμμιά σχέση με Ιρανούς: ήταν Ελαμίτες.

Το Αρχαίο Ελάμ ήταν ένα αρχαίο έθνος και βασίλειο – τμήμα της Ιστορίας της Αρχαίας Μεσοποταμίας και όχι της Ιστορίας του Ιράν.

Οι Ελαμίτες ήταν τόσο αρχαίοι όσο και οι Σουμέριοι και ο πολιτισμός τους τεκμηριώνεται από τα αποκρυπτογραφημένα αρχαία ελαμικά που διακρίνονται σε δύο μεγάλες ιστορικές περιόδους και καλύπτουν την περίοδο από τα τέλη της 4ης προχριστιανικής χιλιετίας μέχρι το 640 μ.Χ., όταν ο Ασσουρμπανιπάλ της Ασσυρίας εξόντωσε το Ελάμ κι εξολόθρευσε το σύνολο του ελαμικού πληθυσμού.

Κέντρο του Ελάμ ήταν τα Σούσα στην Νότια Υπερτιγριανή, τα οποία οι Αχαιμενιδείς βρήκαν σε ερειπία, ανοικοδόμησαν και κατοίκησαν.

Ήδη στα χρόνια των Αχαιμενιδών τα ελαμικά ήταν μια νεκρή γλώσσα (αντίθετα με τα βαβυλωνιακά) την οποία έμαθαν οι Ιρανοί ιερείς και γραφείς από φιλομάθεια, χάρη στους Βαβυλώνιους δασκάλους τους.

Έτσι, πολλές αχαιμενιδικές αυτοκρατορικές επιγραφές υπήρξαν τρίγλωσσες, σε αρχαία αχαιμενιδικά περσικά (Old Achaemenid), βαβυλωνιακά και ελαμικά (Elamite) – όλα σφηνοειδή.

Στο Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ υπάρχουν και ελαμικά ανάγλυφα ήσσονος ωστόσο σημασίας σε σχέση με τα ιρανικά μνημεία.

Σύχρονοι γλωσσολόγοι θεωρούν τους Δραβίδες που κατοικούν το Ντεκάν, δηλαδή το νότιο μισό της ψευτο-χώρας ‘Ινδία’, ως απογόνους των Αρχαίων Ελαμιτών, δεδομένου ότι υπάρχουν εμφανείς γλωσσολογικές ομοιότητες και συνάφεια ανάμεσα στα αρχαία ελαμικά και στις δραβιδικές γλώσσες.

Τέσσερις λαξευτοί τάφοι των Αχαιμενιδών βρίσκονται στο Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ με την εξής σειρά από τα αριστερά προς τα δεξιά: ο τάφος του Δαρείου Β’ (423-404 π.Χ.), ο τάφος του Αρταξέρξη Α’ (465-424 π.Χ.), ο τάφος του Δαρείου Α’ του Μεγάλου (522-486 π.Χ.), και του Ξέρξη Α’ (486-465 π.Χ.). Ένας πέμπτος ημιτελής λαξευτός τάφος πιθανολογείται ότι ετοιμαζόταν για τον Δαρείο Γ’ (336-330 π.Χ.).

Δυο σημαντικές επιγραφές σε αρχαία αχαιμενιδικά έχουν αναγραφεί στην πρόσοψη του λαξευτού τάφου του Δαρείου Α’, η πρώτη, περισσότερου ιστορικού, αυτο-βιογραφικού χαρακτήρα, στο άνω τμήμα της πρόσοψης του τάφου (γνωστή ως DNa) και η άλλη, περισσότερο θρησκευτικού και ηθικού χαρακτήρα, στο κάτω τμήμα της πρόσοψης (γνωστή ως DNb).

Επίσης, έχουν φιλοτεχνηθεί ανάγλυφες αναπαραστάσεις στρατιωτών των εθνών που συμπεριλαμβάνονταν στην αχαιμενιδική αυτοκρατορία και φέρουν σύντομες τρίγλωσσες αναφορές που δηλώνουν την ταυτότητα του κάθε αναπαριστώμενου στρατιώτη.

Επίσης στα αχαιμενιδικά χρόνια ανάγεται ένα κυβικού σχήματος κτήριο που ονομάζεται Κααμπά-γιε Ζαρντόστ, δηλαδή το Ιερό του Ζωροάστρη, σε αντιδιαστολή με τον Κααμπά της Μέκκας. Η ονομασία αυτή έχει δοθεί στο κτήριο κατά τα πρώιμα ισλαμικά χρόνια, όταν οι κατακτημένοι από τις ισλαμικές στρατιές Ιρανοί προσπαθούσαν να διατηρήσουν την ιστορική, θρησκευτική και πολιτισμική ταυτότητά τους.

Ωστόσο, μια σασανιδικών χρόνων επιγραφή πάνω στους τοίχους του κτηρίου διασώζει την μέση περσική ονομασία: Μπουν Χανάκ, δηλ. Θεμέλιος Οίκος. Η θρησκευτική λειτουργικότητα του κτηρίου είναι εμφανής, αν και υπήρξαν σύγχρονες επιστημονικές προσπάθειες να το δουν ως χώρο της αυτοκρατορικής στέψης.

Τέσσερις συνολικά επιγραφές σασανιδικών χρόνων έχουν αναγραφεί πάνω στους εξωτερικούς τοίχους του κτηρίου αλλά η πιο σημαντική ιστορικά είναι η περίφημη Επιγραφή του Καρτίρ, κορυφαίου αρχιερέα, ιδρυτή του Μαζδεϊσμού (ως ζωροαστρικής ορθοδοξίας), θεωρητικού της αυτοκρατορικής ιδεολογίας των Σασανιδών, και αυτοκρατορικού κήρυκα του σασανιδικού οικουμενισμού.

Κααμπά-γε Ζαρντόστ – το Ιερό του Ζωροάστρη

Τα μνημεία σασανιδικών χρόνων που σώζονται στο Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ είναι κυρίως τεραστίων διαστάσεων ανάγλυφα.

Διακρίνονται κυρίως τα εξής:

Α. Ενθρονισμός και Στέψη του Αρντασίρ Α’ (226-242), ιδρυτή της σασανιδικής δυναστείας

Β. Θρίαμβος του Σαπούρ Α’ (241-272), όπου αναπαρίστανται δύο ηττημένοι Ρωμαίοι αυτοκράτορες, ο Φίλιππος Άραψ (244-249), ο οποίος δεν είχε στρατιωτικά νικηθεί αλλά συνάψει μια ειρήνη με πολύ ταπεινωτικούς για την Ρώμη όρους, και ο Βαλεριανός (253-260), ο οποίος ηττήθηκε κι αιχμαλωτίσθηκε στην Μάχη της Έδεσσας της Οσροηνής (Ουρχόη, σήμερα Ούρφα στην νοτιοανατολική Τουρκία) το 260, είχε επακολούθως ταπεινωτική ζωή κι αργότερα οικτρό θάνατο στο Ιράν.

Γ. Ο Μπαχράμ Β’ (276-293) με τον Καρτίρ και Σασανίδες ευγενείς

Δ. Δύο ανάλυφα του Μπαχράμ Β’ έφιππου

Ε. Ενθρονισμός και Στέψη του Ναρσή (293-303)

ΣΤ. Ανάγλυφο του Χορμούζντ Β’ (303-309) έφιππου

Σχετικά με την ήττα του Βαλεριανού από το Σαπούρ Α’ και σχετικά με την παγκοσμίως κορυφαία μορφή του Καρτίρ θα επανέλθω.

Στην συνέχεια, μπορείτε να περιηγηθείτε στο Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ χάρη σε ένα βίντεο, να διαβάσετε επιλεγμένα άρθρα, και να βρείτε συνδέσμους για περισσότερη έρευνα αναφορικά με την προαναφερμένη θεματολογία.

Ο ηττημένος Βαλεριανός γονατιστός προ του Σαπούρ Α’

Δείτε το βίντεο:

Накше-Ростам: римский император Валериан, стоящий на коленях перед Шапуром I (после поражения у Эдессы в Осрене) 260 г. н.э.

https://www.ok.ru/video/1511021677165

Περισσότερα:

Недалеко от Персеполя находится огромный каменистый холм, который в настоящее время укрывает значительную часть 1200-летнего доисламского исторического и культурного наследия Ирана. Крестообразные и высеченные глубоко в скале императорские гробницы Дария I, Ксеркса I и других ахеменидских шахов. Рядом с ними можно полюбоваться великолепными барельефами Сасанидов, на которых изображены два римских императора, униженных перед Сасанидским шахом Шапуром I. Также можно увидеть другие снимки двора Сасанидов.

00:56 гробница Ксеркса I

01:40 Расследование Нарсеха

01:50 гробница Дария I Великого

02:26 Два барельефа Баграма II верхом на лошади

02:46 Триумф Шапура I с двумя униженными римскими императорами, Филиппом Арабским и (стоящим на коленях) Валерианом

03:02 гробница Артаксеркса I

03:31 Хормузд II верхом на лошади

03:41 гробница Дария IΙ

04:26 Баграм II верхом на лошади

04:43 Кааба-Зардошт (Храм Зороастра)

05:44 Расследование Ардашира I

06:10 Баграм II с дворянами Картиром и Сасанидами

Династии Ахеменидов принадлежат четыре гробницы со скальными рельефами. Они расположены в скалах на существенной высоте над землёй. Одна из гробниц принадлежит царю Дарию I, что установлено по надписям (522—486 до н. э.). Про остальные гробницы предполагают, что в них похоронены цари Ксеркс I (486—465 до н. э.), Артаксеркс I (465—424 до н. э.), и Дарий II (423—404 до н. э.).

Пятая неоконченная гробница, по предположениям, предназначалась царю Артаксерксу III, но более вероятно — царю Дарию III (336—330 до н. э.). Гробницы были заброшены после покорения Персии Александром Македонским.

На территории некрополя расположено квадратное в сечении здание высотой двенадцать метров (большая часть из которых находится ниже современного уровня земли) с единственным внутренним помещением. Народное название этого сооружения — «Куб Заратустры» (Кааб-е Зартошт).

Из научных версий наиболее распространена версия о том, что здание служило зороастрийским святилищем огня. По другой, реже упоминаемой версии, под сооружением может находиться могила Кира Великого. Однако ни одна версия не подтверждена документально.

На «Кубе Заратустры» имеются клинописные надписи, сделанные от лица Картира (одного из первых зороастрийских священников), портрет которого можно увидеть неподалеку в археологической зоне Накше-Раджаб.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Накше-Рустам

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Naqsh-e Rostam: Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in front of Shapur I (after the defeat at Edessa of Osrhoene) 260 CE

https://vk.com/video434648441_456240307

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Not far from Persepolis, there is an enormous rocky hill which shelters today a significant part of 1200 years of Pre-Islamic Iranian Historical and Cultural Heritage. Cruciform and hewn deep in the rock are the imperial tombs of Darius I, Xerxes I, and other Achaemenid shahs.

Next to them, one can admire the magnificent Sassanid bas-reliefs that depict two Roman emperor humiliated in front of the Sassanid Shah Shapur I and other snapshots of the Sassanid court.

00:56 Tomb of Xerxes I

01:40 Investigation of Narseh

01:50 Tomb of Darius I the Great

02:26 Two bas reliefs of Bagram II riding his horse

02:46 Triumph of Shapur I with two humiliated Roman emperors, Philip the Arab and (kneeling) Valerian

03:02 Tomb of Artaxerxes I

03:31 Hormuzd II riding his horse

03:41 Tomb of Darius IΙ

04:26 Bagram II riding his horse

04:43 Kaaba-ye Zardosht (the Shrine of Zoroaster)

05:44 Investigation of Ardashir I

06:10 Bagram II with Kartir and Sassanid noblemen

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Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ: Ανάγλυφο του Βαλεριανού γονατιστού προ του Σαπούρ Α’ & Σταυρόσχημοι Τάφοι Αχαιμενιδών

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Όχι μακριά από την Περσέπολη ένας τεράστιος βράχος αποτελεί σήμερα την παρακαταθήκη 1200 χρόνων προϊσλαμικής πολιτισμικής κληρονομιάς. Οι σταυρόσχημοι λαξευτοί τάφοι του Δαρείου Α’, του Ξέρξη και άλλων Αχαιμενιδών βρίσκονται δίπλα σε μεταγενέστερα σασανιδικά ανάγλυφα που απεικονίζουν την ταπείνωση δυο Ρωμαίων αυτοκρατόρων προ του Σάχη Σαπούρ Α’ και άλλα στιγμιότυπα της σασανιδικής αυλής.

00:56 Τάφος του Ξέρξη Α’

01:40 Ενθρονισμός και Στέψη του Ναρσή (293-303)

01:50 Τάφος του Δαρείου Α’

02:26 Δύο ανάλυφα του Μπαχράμ Β’ έφιππου

02:46 Θρίαμβος του Σαπούρ Α’ με δύο Ρωμαίους αυτοκράτορες, τον Φίλιππο Άραβα και τον Βαλεριανό γονατιστό

03:02 Τάφος του Αρταξέρξη Α’

03:31 Χορμούζντ Β’ έφιππος

03:41 Τάφος του Δαρείου Β’

04:26 Μπαχράμ Β’ έφιππος

04:43 Κααμπά-γιε Ζαρντόστ (το Ιερό του Ζωροάστρη)

05:44 Ενθρονισμός και Στέψη του Αρντασίρ Α’

06:10 Μπαχράμ Β’ με τον Καρτίρ και Σασανίδες ευγενείς

Naqsh-e Rostam (Persian: نقش رستم) is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran, with a group of ancient Iranian rock reliefs cut into the cliff, from both the Achaemenid and Sassanid periods. It lies a few hundred meters from Naqsh-e Rajab, with a further four Sassanid rock reliefs, three celebrating kings and one a high priest.

Naqsh-e Rostam is the necropolis of the Achaemenid dynasty (c. 550–330 BC), with four large tombs cut high into the cliff face. These have mainly architectural decoration, but the facades include large panels over the doorways, each very similar in content, with figures of the king being invested by a god, above a zone with rows of smaller figures bearing tribute, with soldiers and officials. The three classes of figures are sharply differentiated in size. The entrance to each tomb is at the center of each cross, which opens onto a small chamber, where the king lay in a sarcophagus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naqsh-e_Rostam

The Ka’ba-ye Zartosht is 46 metres (151 ft) from the mountain, situated exactly opposite Darius II’s mausoleum. It is rectangular and has only one entrance door. The material of the structure is white limestone. It is about 12 metres (39 ft) high, or 14.12 metres (46.3 ft) if including the triple stairs, and each side of its base is about 7.30 metres (24.0 ft) long. Its entrance door leads to the chamber inside via a thirty-stair stone stairway. The stone pieces are rectangular and are simply placed on top of each other, without the use of mortar; the sizes of the stones varies from 0.48 by 2.10 by 2.90 metres (1 ft 7 in by 6 ft 11 in by 9 ft 6 in) to 0.56 by 1.08 by 1.10 metres (1 ft 10 in by 3 ft 7 in by 3 ft 7 in), and they are connected to each other by dovetail joints.

The structure was built in the Achaemenid era and there is no information of the name of the structure in that era. It was called Bon-Khanak in the Sassanian era; the local name of the structure was Kornaykhaneh or Naggarekhaneh; and the phrase Ka’ba-ye Zartosht has been used for the structure since the fourteenth century, into the contemporary era.

Various views and interpretations have been proposed about the application of the chamber, but none of them could be accepted with certainty: some consider the tower a fire temple and a fireplace, and believe that it was used for igniting and worshiping the holy fire, while another group rejects this view and considers it the mausoleum of one of the Achaemenid shahs or grandees, due to its similarity to the Tomb of Cyrus and some mausoleums of Lycia and Caria.

Some other Iranian scholars believe the stone chamber to be a structure for the safekeeping of royal documents and holy or religious books; however, the chamber of Ka’ba-ye Zartosht is too small for this purpose. Other less noticed theories, such as its being a temple for the goddess Anahita or a solar calendar, have also been mentioned. Three inscriptions have been written in the three languages Sassanian Middle Persian, Arsacid Middle Persian and Greek on the Northern, Southern and Eastern walls of the tower, in the Sassanian era.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka%27ba-ye_Zartosht

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Naghshe Rustam

Eras

Naghshe Rustam complex is within a 6-kilometer distance to Persepolis and is located in Haji Abad Mountains. This complex encompasses three eras:

Elamite relics belong to 2000-600 B.C.

Achaemenid relics belong to 330-600 B.C.

Sasanian relics belong to 224-651 A.D.

Mausoleum of Achaemenid Kings

Some of the greatest kings of Achaemenid’s tombs are in Naghshe Rustam. Xerxes (Khashayar Shah) (486 to 445 B.C.), Darius I (522 to 486 B.C.), Ardashir I (465 to 424 B.C.), and Darius II (424 to 405 B.C.) tombs are located in Naghshe Rostam.

The Tombs

The width of each tomb is 19 meters and the length is about 93 meters. The tombs are about 26 meters above the ground level.

Symbolism of the outer space of the tombs

The carving of the king with an arc in the hand is visible on top of the platform. This arc is a symbol of strength. In front of the king, the carving of Ahuramazda is visible. In this carving, two places are visible in which sacred fire is burning. In the right top of the picture, the carving of the moon is visible which shows the world instability.

In the bottom of the platform, the representatives of different nations are holding the kingdom throne. There are also columns; on top of each column, you can see a two-headed cow. Some roaring lions are visible in the bottom of the motifs. The lions are decorated with some lotus. Lotus is a symbol of sincerity and being free of any sin.

Mausoleum Structures

The entrance of each mausoleum is square shaped. These doors were being locked in ancient times. Additionally, Darius Mausoleum has some cuneiform writing. In this writing, Darius is praising Ahuramazda and he mentions his victories. He also speaks of his thoughts. The corridor in Darius Mausoleum has a length of 18.72 meters and a width of 3.70 meters. In this mausoleum, there are nine stone coffins which are dug in a stone row. They belong to the Great Darius, the Queen, and other relatives. Their dimensions are 2.1*1.5*1.5. Each tomb is covered with a big stone.

Kabaye Zartosht (Cube of Zoroaster)

In front of the Naghshe Rustam, in a whole, there is a beautiful cube that they call it the Cube of Zoroaster –who is an Iranian Prophet-. This building is made of big stones. The proficiency and precision used in cuttings and carvings in the black and white stones show the capability of the architectures in Achaemenid Dynasty. On top of the cube, there is a 2.5*2.5 square meters room. There are different beliefs about this room.

Some believe that Avesta (the religious texts of Zoroastrianism) which was written on 12000 cowhides has been stored in this room. Some others believe that this room is the tomb of Bardiya the son of Cyrus who was killed by his brother Cambyses.

Some of the historians believe that the sacred fire was stored in this room. Recently it is said that this room was an observatory. During the Sasanian Empire, some of the important governmental documents were kept. A Sasanian inscription is in three languages. This inscription mainly talks about the historical events in Shapour I in Iran and Rome battles in which the Valerian (Rome Emperor) was defeated and prisoned in Bishapur.

The Excavation of Naghshe Rustam

For the first time, it was excavated by Ernst Herzfeld (German archaeologist and Iranologist) in 1923. Herzfeld excavated the last vestiges of Sasanian towers. After that, this place was analyzed several times from 1936 to 1939. Some important heritage like Persian Inscriptions and some buried stone belonging to Sassanid Era were found. In central Excavations, they reach a building. And in the western parts, the last vestiges of two buildings with muddy bricks were found.

https://apochi.com/attractions/shiraz/naghshe-rustam/

Ο ηττημένος Βαλεριανός γονατιστός προ του Σαπούρ Α’

Naqš-e Rostam

Naqš-e Rostam, a perpendicular cliff wall on the southern nose of the Ḥosayn Kuh in Fārs, about 6 km northwest of Persepolis; the site is unusually rich in Achaemenid and Sasanian monuments, built or hewn out from the rock. The Persian name “Pictures of Rostam” refers to the Sasanian reliefs on the cliff, believed to represent the deeds of Rostam.

Achaemenid Period. The most important architectural remains are the tower called Kaʿba-ye Zardošt (Kaʿba of Zoroaster, Ar. kaʿba “cube, sanctuary”) and four royal tombs with rock cut façades and sepulchral chambers.

(1) The Kaʿba-ye Zardošt is a massive, built square tower, resting on three steps (7.30 x 7.30 x14.12 m) and covered by a flat pyramidal roof (Stronach, 1967, pp. 282-84; 1978, pp. 130-36; Camb. Hist. Iran II, pp. 838-48; Schmidt, pp. 34-49). The only opening is a door. But on all four sides there is a system of blind windows in dark grey limestone, set off by the yellow color of the general structure, between the reinforced corners, and the walls are covered with staggered rectangular depressions. Both systems have no other purpose than to relieve the monotony of the structure. A frieze of dentils forms the upper cornice. A staircase of 30 steps, eight of which are preserved, led to the door (0.87 x 1.75 m) in the upper part of the north wall. Originally, the two leaves of a door opened into an almost square room (3.72 x 3.74 x 5.54 m) without any architectural decoration and no provisions for lighting (Schmidt, p. 37).

There is an analogous, though much more decayed, structure, called Zendān-e Soleymān (lit. prison of Solomon), in Pasargadae (Stronach, 1978, pp. 117-37; 1983, pp. 848-52). Its stone technique does not yet show traces of the toothed chisel (Stronach, 1978, p. 132), and the building can thus be dated to the last years of Cyrus II the Great (r. ca. 558-530 BCE), whereas due to chisel marks the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt can be dated to the early years of Darius I (r. 522-486), around 500 BCE. The Achaemenid structures do not have exact prototypes, but their plan is comparable with those of the earlier Urartian tower temples (Stronach, 1967, pp. 278-88; 1978, pp. 132-34).

On the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt, three exterior sides bear the famous inscription of Shapur I. (r. 241-72 C.E.). The Res gestae divi Saporis (ŠKZ) was added in Greek on the south wall, in Sasanian Pahlawi (Parsik) on the east, and in Parthian (Pahlawik) on the west (Back, pp. 284-371), while the north wall with the entrance has remained empty. Beneath the Parsik version on the east wall, the high priest Kirdīr had his own inscription incised (Sprengling, pp. 37-54; Chaumont, pp. 339-80; Gignoux, pp. 45-48).

Evidently, in Sasanian times the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt—like the tower at Paikuli with the inscription of Narseh (r. 293–302; cf. Humbach and Skjaervø)—served, in addition to other functions, as memorial. Perhaps the two towers in Naqš-e Rostam and Pasargadae already had a similar significance in Achaemenid times, albeit this cannot have been their main function.

In Kirdīr’s inscription the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt is called “bun-xānak.” W. B. Henning proposed the translation “foundation house,” and concluded that the tower was of central religious significance. He suggested that the empty high room was destined “for the safe keeping of the records of the church and even more for the principal copy of the Avesta” (Henning).

Though other translations of “bun-xānak” have been discussed (Gignoux, pp. 28-29 n. 61), it seems the most convincing interpretation that these two towers served as depositories. The lack of any provision for the ventilation of a fire excludes the towers’ use as fire temples (Stronach, 1978, pp. 134-35).

Their staircases were designed “for the solemn ascent and descent of persons who in some manner attended the sacred structure” (Schmidt, p. 41). They indicate that the towers did not serve as royal tombs (Stronach, Camb. Hist. Iran II, p. 849 n. 2), because those have entrance walls that are smoothed beyond their facades, down to the original ground, to make them inaccessible.

N. Frye (1974, p. 386) first expressed the opinion that “the intention was . . . to build a safety box for the paraphernalia of rule in the vicinity of Persepolis as had been done at Pasargadae,” though E. F. Schmidt (p. 44) had dismissed the interpretation of the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt as depository. But Plutarch (46-after 119 C.E.) mentions in Artoxerxes 3 that at Pasargadae one temple belonged “to a warlike goddess, whom one might conjecture to be Athena” (Sancisi-Weerdenburg, p. 148).

At this sanctuary the Achaemenid kings were crowned. During the coronation ceremony the new monarch took a very frugal meal, and was dressed in the robes which Cyrus the Elder wore before assuming kingship. H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg was the first to identify the Zendān-e Soleymān as Plutarch’s temple (Gk. hieron).

Consequently, she interpreted this building, as well as the Kaʿba-ye Zardošt, as “coronation tower.” Her view that these towers had dynastic functions, rather than a purely religious significance and definitely no funeral purposes, has become widely accepted, though her suggestion that a sacred fire was also kindled in these towers can no longer be upheld.

(2) The Royal Tombs. In the cliff wall four monumental tombs are cut out from the native rock (Schmidt, pp. 80-107). The oldest tomb (Tomb I) has inscriptions that assign it to Darius I.

The other three (Tomb II-IV) can only tentatively be attributed to Xerxes (east-northeast of Darius I), Artaxerxes I (west-southwest of the tomb of Darius I) and Darius II (westernmost).

The four monuments follow the same pattern. But it is completely different from that of the older tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae, which is a built structure consisting of a stepped platform and a tomb with a gabled roof. The model was first used for Darius I and has no exact prototypes in the Near East, Egypt or Greece, though the stone technique is Urartian in origin (Calmeyer, 1975, pp. 101-7; Gropp, pp. 115-21; Huff, 1990, pp. 90-91).

The rock tomb is characterized by the contrast between a cruciform composition in relief on the exterior wall and a very simple interior of chambers and grave cists. The center of the relief ensemble is a facade that represents the front of a palace with four engaged columns. On this architectural component rests a throne bench (Gk. klinē, OPers. gathu in inscription DNa) that is supported by 30 representatives of the empire’s peoples. The throne bench in turn serves as the platform of a religious scene with king, fire altar, and divine symbols.

The architectural register recalls the palace of the living monarch because the portico’s dimensions on the tomb of Darius I. are almost identical to those of his palace on the terrace of Persepolis (Schmidt, p. 81). A significant feature is the use of engaged columns, which appear on his tomb for the first time in rock architecture.

The so-called Median rock tombs, which are imitations of the Achaemenid monuments, do always show free standing columns (von Gall, 1966, pp. 19-43; 1973, pp. 139-154; 1988, pp. 557-82; “Dokkān”); the exception is the tomb of Qizqapan, where half columns have been placed on the rear of the antechamber (von Gall, 1988, pl. 23).

But at many tombs in the Median province, the originally freestanding columns have collapsed under the pressure of the superimposed rock. Consequently, there was not only the esthetic reason of creating the illusion that the antechamber’s front side and back wall were on the same level. More important were statical considerations. The architects and sculptors of the royal tombs used engaged columns because they could withstand the rock pressure despite their high slender shape.

In the middle register, the mighty throne bench with its 30 armed carriers does not show a realistic scene, and is not considered pictorial evidence for the supposition of real processions on the roofs of Achaemenid palaces (Schmidt, p. 80). It rather is a simile of the Achaemenid empire, the throne bench of which is supported by its peoples, dressed in their distinctive costumes and headgears (Schmidt, pp. 108-118).

On the tombs of Darius I in Naqš-e Rostam and that of Artaxerxes II (r. 404-359 BCE) in Persepolis, inscriptions describe the peoples’ order, and this order seems to correspond with the official geographical records of the empire’s extension (Calmeyer, 1982, pp. 109-123). According to P. Goukowsky (p. 223; cf. Calmeyer, 1982, p. 113 fig. 3) the empire was divided in three concentric zones: Persians, Medians and Elamites live in the inner circle.

An axis is leading from the center to the east, listing Parthians, Arians, Bactrians, Sogdians, and Chorasmians. Then the enumeration turns southeast, naming Drangians, Arachosians, Sattagydians (Thataguš), Gandharans, and Indians and reaches Central Asia, where the haoma-venerating Scythians and pointed-hat Scythians already inhabit the periphery.

On a second axis leading to the south the Babylonians, Syrians, Arabians, and Egyptians (Mudraya) are aligned, whereas on a third axis to the northwest the Armenians, Cappadocians, Lydians (Sparda), and Ionians are represented. Finally in the western periphery there live the Scythians beyond the Sea, the Thracians (Skudra), and the Petasos bearing Ionians.

The Libyans (Putaya) and the Ethiopians (Kušiya) roam the empire’s southernmost countries. Two men stand outside the throne bench, and their hands help lifting the platform which is slightly elevated above the ground.

They are a Makan (Maka, i.e., Oman and probably also the region on the Persian side of the Gulf) and a Carian (Karka). P. Calmeyer (p. 120) has convincingly argued that their exceptional corner positions reflects that these two peoples inhabit the south and the west corners of the empire, at the shore of the ōkeanos which in antiquity was believed to flow around the inhabited earth (Gk. oikoumenē).

All men (Schmidt, figs. 39-50), with the exception of the Babylonian (ibid., fig. 50 no. 16), are wearing weapons, mostly daggers and swords, and some also pairs of javelins.

Bearing arms in the presence of the monarch was a sign of honor and trust, so that the unarmed Babylonian represents an act of deliberate humiliation.

Since Xerxes (r. 486-465 BCE) probably supervised the final work on the tomb of his father Darius I (Schmidt, pp. 116-18 part. 117), this humiliation is likely to reflect to repeated rebellions of the Babylonians against him as well as against his father.

The scene in the top register has religious significance. The king is standing on a three-stepped platform, his left resting on a bow, while his slightly lifted right hand points to the winged symbol hovering above the scene. Since the late 19th, early 20th century, the winged ensign with a human figure, emerging from a circle, has been understood as a representation of Ahura Mazdā (Root, pp. 169-79), and recent attempts to interpret this symbol as the royal genius Frawahr have been rejected.

The king faces a blazing fire altar, though he stands at a considerable distance, whilst the ensign of a disc with inscribed crescent is hovering in the upper right corner. In general, scholars agree that this scene shows how the king is worshipping the holy fire. But the gesture of the king’s right hand corresponds in all details with that of the right hand of the Ahura Mazdā symbol.

The representation thus stresses the close connection between the king and Ahura Mazdā, whose will is decisive for the king’s actions. This interpretation is supported by the Achaemenid royal inscriptions, which are directly related to the reliefs.

On tomb I, Darius I wears a headdress (Gk. kidaris) with an upper rim of sculptured stepped crenellations. Reliefs on the jambs of the southern doorway in Darius’s Palace (Tilia, pp. 58-59) indicate that this was the personal crown of Darius, which was also worn by Xerxes as long as he was crown prince (von Gall, 1974, pp. 147-51).

On Tomb II, which is ascribed to Xerxes, in the king’s crown the rest of a sculptured crenellation is visible (von Gall, 1974, pl. 134 no. 2; 1975 fig. 3), suggesting that this monument was completed before he became the absolute monarch (von Gall, 1974, p. 151). The representations of this late time show a straight cylindrical crown without any decoration. All succeeding rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty adopted this shape, allowing only minor deviations (von Gall, 1974, pp. 150-60; 1975, pp. 222-24).

Another invariable detail of the royal tombs is the discoid symbol hovering in the upper right corner. The inscribed crescent indicates its Assyrian origins. While it represents the moon god Sin in Assyrian art, on the Achaemenid tombs its meaning is difficult to comprehend. Opinions differ whether the symbol has to be interpreted as lunar or solar (cf. Root, pp. 177-78), and there are no written sources to corroborate either view. E. F. Schmidt (p. 85) interpreted the sign as a symbol of Mithra.

But the Persian moon god Māh is relatively well documented in the imagery of the Achaemenid seals. In the central panel above the fire altar scene of the rock tomb of Qizqapan, this type of moon god is also represented (von Gall, 1988, pp. 571-72). These images, in connection with other, though scanty, pictorial evidence (von Gall, 1988, p. 572 n. 55), suggest that the moon played a certain role in Achaemenid concepts of death and afterlife.

On the tomb of Darius, the framework of the throne bench shows three superimposed figures on each side. On the left, two dignitaries are inscribed as the lance bearer Gobryas (Gaubaruwa) and the bearer of the royal battle-ax Aspathines (Aspačina), while the lowest man is an unnamed guard (Schmidt, pp. 86-87). On the right, three unarmed men are clad in the long Persian garment. Their gesture of raising a part their upper garment to the mouth has been interpreted as an expression of mourning, comparable to the Greek custom (Schmidt, p. 87).

More recently, scholars have suggested that this gesture captures the imperative of ’do not pollute the holy fire’ (Hinz, p. 63 n. 4; cf. Seidl, p. 168) or shows respect for the king’s majesty (Root, p. 179), but both alternatives seem less convincing. Additional figures are on the side walls of the recesses into which the tomb facade was carved. On the left, there are three superimposed panels with guards holding long lances. On the right, three mourners who need be considered either courtiers or members of the royal family (Schmidt, p. 87) stand above each other.

Two larger cuneiform inscriptions, as well as legends with the names of Darius I, of his two supreme commanders, and of the 30 bearers of the throne bench, are found in the facade of Tomb I. One is in the top register, to the left of the king (DNa), and the other (DNb) stands in the architectural register, on three of the five panels between the half columns of the portico.

Both are written in three languages, but DNa in Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian (Weissbach, pp. 86-91), and DNb in Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian (Hinz, pp. 52-62 including R. Borger’s edition of the Akkadian version). In the Seleucid period, an Aramaic version was added to DNb below the Elamite text (Frye, 1982).

In stark contrast to the rich architectural decoration of the façade, the interior is bare of any architectural and figural elements. The general layout is also best demonstrated with the tomb of Darius I: A long vestibule is running parallel to the facade, and three doors in the back wall of this vestibule are leading to three separate barrel-vaulted tomb chambers. In each tomb chamber, a trough-like cavity was hewn into the solid rock to hold a probably wooden sarcophagus or klinē. These cists were sealed with monolithic lids after the deposition of the corpses, but nothing has remained of the original interments.

The combination of an oblique corridor and burial chambers with cists was preserved in the other three tombs, assigned to Xerxes (Tomb II), Artaxerxes (Tomb III), and Darius II (Tomb IV).

Yet they show inferior craftsmanship, because the chambers are not running axially, but obliquely to the facade. At Persepolis, the interior organization of the two tombs is also identical.

(3) Other architectural remains. In the Center Test of his 1936 and 1939 excavations, E. F. Schmidt found a building (Schmidt, pp. 10 and 64). In the West Test, he discovered remains of two mud-brick buildings, as well as evidence of an enclosure of the royal tombs (ibid., pp. 10, 54-55). In the west of the cliff, a polygonal cistern (diam. 7.20 m) hewn out from the native rock was excavated (ibid., pp. 10, 65).

The Sasanian Period. A fortified enclosure ran around the major part of the sculptured cliff, and its west and east ends were abutting with the rock. Seven semicircular towers strengthened this structure (Schmidt, pp. 55-58, figs. 2, 4; cf. Trümpelmann, p. 41, fig. 68, drawing by G. Wolff). On the slope of the Hosayn Kuh, there are two cut rock structures in the shape of a čahārṭāq. They are generally assumed to be Sasanian fire altars, but D. Huff (1998, p. 80 pl. 10a; “Fārs,” pp. 353-54 pl. 3) identifies them as astōdāns.

Τις βιβλιογραφικές παραπομπές μπορείτε να βρείτε εδώ:

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/naqs-e-rostam

Η νίκη του Σαπούρ Α’ επί των Ρωμαίων Αυτοκρατόρων Βαλεριανού (γονατιστού) και Φίλιππου του Άραβα

Επιπλέον:

Γενικά για τα μνημεία και τις επιγραφές:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naqsh-e_Rostam

ttps://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Накше-Рустам

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

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

Τα κείμενα των επιγραφών, φωτοτυπίες, μεταγραμματισμός κι αγγλική μετάφραση:

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dna/?

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dnb/

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/achaemenid-royal-inscriptions/dne/

https://www.livius.org/articles/place/naqs-e-rustam/

Το Ιερό του Ζωροάστρη:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ka%27ba-ye_Zartosht

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartir%27s_inscription_at_Naghsh-e_Rajab

Σχετικά με τον Σαπούρ Α’, τον Φίλιππο Άραβα, τον Βαλεριανό και την Μάχη της Έδεσσας της Οσροηνής (260 μ.Χ.)

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_(emperor)

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

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

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

Η ταπείνωση και αιχμαλωσία του Ρωμαίου Αυτοκράτορα Βαλεριανού από τον Σαπούρ Α’ όπως αναπαριστάθηκε σε πίνακα του 16ου αιώνα από τον Γερμανό ζωγράφο Hans Holbein der Jüngere (Hans Holbein the Younger) – 1521. Ο καλλιτέχνης δεν είχε υπόψει του το σασανιδικό ανάγλυφο του Ναξ-ε Ρουστάμ και κανένας Ευρωπαίος ταξιδιώτης, έμπορος, διπλωμάτης ή ερευνητής δεν είχε φθάσει ακόμη εκεί αλλά οι Ευρωπαίοι διετήρησαν πολύ αρνητικές αναμνήσεις από τον Βαλεριανό, δεδομένου ότι ο Ρωμαίος αυτοκράτορας είχε κηρύξει διωγμούς κατά των Χριστιανών και Χριστιανοί συγγραφείς είχαν δικαιολογημένα χαρεί από το ελεεινό τέλος του Βαλεριανού που μάλιστα περιέγραψαν ως πολύ χειρότερο από το ιστορικά τεκμηριωμένο τέλος του.

Το περίφημο καμέο του Σαπούρ Α’ νικητή στην Έδεσσα της Οσροηνής (Ούρχα, σήμερα Ούρφα στην νοτιοανατολική Τουρκία) επί του Ρωμαίου αυτοκράτορα Βαλεριανού που αιχμαλωτίστηκε.

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https://www.slideshare.net/MuhammadShamsaddinMe/240270

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Gate in Volterra, Etruria by Pavel Svedomsky

"Om mani padme hum" Mantras are the combination of all of the Buddha’s teachings condensed into six syllables in the form of mantra. It is very powerful that you do not need anything else. Avalokiteshvara said that merely through this mani mantra , many people will be liberated from samsara. Lama Thanka Painting School @lama_thanka

Iran 2022: Typical Freemasonic-Zionist Proxy War between Ayatollahs and Protestors at the Detriment of the Average Iranians

There is nothing Islamic in the Islamic Republic of Iran except the popular religion (attested in non-Westernized people) and the historical monuments. In Iranian provinces, the Muslim faith is alive, although this is not tantamount to direct support of the Qom / Tehran-based, absurd theological regime, which wastes the national resources in counter-productive manners.

The supporters of the Ayatollahs are mainly concentrated in major cities whereby the advanced technological Westernization produces a terrible ideological clash at the detriment of all Muslims. In the same social environment live also the 'pro-Western' opponents of the Ayatollahs.

Among these three categories of people, the cultural differences are enormous, the diverse purposes are centrifugal, and the socio-behavioral systems are opposite.

I. Traditional believers in Iranian provinces

The majority of the people in the provinces, living either in the villages, the towns and the cities or as nomads, live Islam as a popular religion; they cherish the related moral values, respect their traditions, and experience spirituality as traditional component of their culture. As they are distant from the capital, governance is not their concern. They may well observe the various wrongdoings of the government, but politics is not their affair, and they cannot see a trustworthy opponent anywhere in the horizon. Their attitude is therefore clearly neutral, anything between passive acceptance and passive resistance. I would also add that they are too innocent, too naïve and too benevolent to possibly fathom how their government and regime have been maneuvered by evil foreign forces without even knowing or sensing it. All the same, these people are the true, average Iranians. I would say that they represent ca. 50% of the population.

II. 'Religious' supporters of the Ayatollahs

The people in the cities and the big cities live in great tension; the supporters of the government are very fervent, but they confuse 'theology' with 'religion' and 'politics' with 'governance'. They have lost much of the Iranian culture to the benefit of the technological modernization. They cannot experience the popular religion in the way people customarily do in villages; to them 'religion' means 'rejection of the West' and celebrating the Mawlid un-Nabi today is for them an opportunity to reject the true, existing, evil plans of several Western countries against Iran. This is absurd. Religion is all about a person's contact with God; evil governments, regimes and secret organizations have no place in Faith. You cannot possibly believe a religion only to reject somebody else – however evil he/they may truly be; such an attitude is by all means sheer madness and utter disbelief. But these people cannot see that the hate of the other cannot be possibly associated with one's faith or with an entire nation's religion. Losing their popular religion and traditional culture, they get radicalized, they mistake theology and political ideology for religion, and they become appalling to the 'Westernized' Iranians. These people make big noise, but they do not constitute more than 25% of the entire population. Their success is that they appear to have the support of the silent majority (see previous unit) and they control the totality of the dictatorial mechanisms of the state (this is not typically Iranian: anywhere the state mechanisms are dictatorial).

III. 'Pro-Western' or 'Westernized' Iranians

This population, contrarily to the aforementioned two groups, is not homogeneous. This is critically calamitous to all foreign schemes and plans of utilizing them. This very fact consists also in a major stumbling block in their path to power. However, this situation is nothing new; it became crystal clear in the last years of Reza Pahlavi's reign and in the first years of the Khomeini oligarchical rule. At the time, a sizeable part of this population allied themselves with the supporters of Khomeini. Now they don't make the same mistake again! Leftist Iranians, who studied in Paris only to become Marxist-Leninist or social democrat of ideology, royalists who wish Reza Pahlavi's son to come back and reign, Iranians who lived abroad only to be impacted enough to become anything An-Iranian (the non-Iran is a historical term that goes back to pre-Islamic times), conservative people of the old upper middle class who desire to simply look like Westerners without truly being so, and few truly marginal groups of homosexuals and atheists, materialists and nationalists can be categorized as anti-Ayatollah opposition.

When it comes to this segment of Iranian society, their only chance is to sensitize the silent majority (see Unit I) in case the radicalization of the 'religious' supporters of the regime turns out to appear like brutalization of the rest. This can bring results and this is known to all the enemies of Iran: those who appear 'friendly' nowadays (England) and those who hate the Iranian Civilization that shaped the Western world against their will (Israel) and up to the point that they need to hide it (Vatican, France).

To close this brief introduction, I must say that the fragmentation of this part of the Iranian society is not the major problem that they have. There is a very serious issue, which is not known to most of these people, and still affects them terribly. This fact has to do with their own self-identification and description as 'Pro-Western' or 'Westernized'. Although these people think that they are so, in reality they are not.

Certainly they want to remove their hijab, but they don't want homosexual marriages in Iran.

Certainly they want to have a parliamentarian political system, which looks like that of a European country; but they don't want to pass lawless laws according to which the school teachers will demand from a 'court of Justice' to separate the children from their parents because the latter did not 'explain' to them at the age of 7 that they can change their gender.

Certainly they want to have free alcohol in Iran, but they don't want prostitution, fornication, and adultery, as well as premarital and extramarital relations to be considered as 'legal' activities in Iran.

Certainly they don't want a sectarian decision-making in Iran; but this is only due to their ignorance and lack of understanding of the Western world. What difference at this point would it make to abolish a pseudo-Islamist sectarian decision-making in Iran only to replace it by a Zionist sectarian decision-making?

Who said that Iran must be governed by filthy and criminal dictators, who would 'conclude' (only because they were heavily bribed) that "Iran does not need nuclear weapons", "Russia and China are a threat", "NATO is necessary for regional security" and "UK, France, Canada, Australia, US, New Zealand, and Israel" are 'normal' states?

No one needs beasts like that in Iran!

My simple and straightforward conclusion is that, in spite of all drawbacks and serious mistakes, oversights, and wrongdoings, Iranians do not need, do not want, do not deserve, and will not approve of a regime change geared -not out of love for the (deliberately misrepresented in, and concealed from, the Western world) Iranian nation and civilization but- because of an inhuman, vicious hatred for the holy land of Iran, which proved throughout the ages to be definitely more important than the Roman Empire, let alone South Canaan (fake Israel) and South Balkans (fake Greece).

I have an advice for all Iranian protestors: go to China!

Forget UK and US! These countries are impermissible to exist and they will cease to exist.

It is on this background that I received a comment about one of my articles on Iran, which was first published in 2007. I herewith publish the comment and my response. The old article concerned the Ayatollah regime of Iran and how it functioned to the benefit of Western colonial powers; it can be found here:   

academia.edu

Ayatollahs' Iran: a Nationalistic Theocracy as Freemasonic Machination

The current theocratic and utterly unrepresentative regime of Iran was not the choice of the peoples and nations of Iran. The events that tr

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IV. A reader's comment on Western foreign involvement in Iran

Dear Shamsaddin,

With the ongoing social revolution in Iran, I also discovered the historic links between Freemasons and the Shiite clergy. I shall read your document with keen interest.

Best regards

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V. Response about the manifestations in Iran and evil agendas

Thank you for your interest and comment! Unfortunately, this article is an old publication which was first published in the American Chronicle, Buzzle and AfroArticles back in 2007, immediately reproduced in Fravahr, and later republished here. Of course, I did not change my mind over the past 15 years, but the presentation is very brief.

People did/do not understand the nature of Western colonialism and that is why great empires have been decomposed by the Western criminals. The Western world is a composite tyrannical regime ruled by elites that, while expanding worldwide and exploiting the rest of the world, fight against one another: Jesuits, Freemasons and Zionists utilize every resource (i.e. every state) available, and in the process, other countries get destroyed, dismembered and ruined.

What various establishments, empires and kingdoms outside the Western world failed to understand is the following observation. When France became the ally of the Ottoman Empire and England supported Iran, the French and the English interests were protected, whereas Iran and the Ottoman Empire got dissolved. Why? Because both alliances were a scheme and a lie!

When a secret organization like the CIA places an ignorant and worthless soldier atop of a country (like Gamal Abdel Nasser), they also manage to put next to him a driver and a cook who are their own pawns (but the worthless soldier does not know it) and they can kill the 'important person' any time they receive the order to do this.

When Napoleon sent a special envoy to the Qajar Shah to ask permission that French soldiers cross Iran to attack the English criminals in India (and prevent the then forthcoming collapse of the Mughal), the English sent their own agent who managed to poison the French envoy in a public restaurant in Esfahan.

After the English made of a soldier (Reza Khan) the king of Iran (to turn an Oriental Empire into a weak and worthless nationalistic kingdom), they

- first, gave him his ... name (the poor guy did not have a clue what Pahlevi meant),

- second, prepared the opponent of his son {Khomeini was guided by English stooges as to what to study, what to write in his thesis, and what vision of possible 'Islamic' state to compose (the ridiculous Wilayat al Faqih serves only English interests in Islamic countries)}, and

- third, corrupted his son (when he was 'studying' in Switzerland in the 1930s) so that finally he deposed the idiotic Reza Khan, and he ruled until he was deposed too.

Look at this picture! Notice the position of the legs of both persons! It is quite telling - about who the teacher/master and who the pupil/student are!

So, what you call 'social revolution in Iran' is not a social revolution, but a well-prepared (by the Zionists) operation against the pathetic gang of the Ayatollahs who operated (without knowing it) as local stooges of the English Freemasonry. In other words, it is a proxy war between the secret services of England from one side (the silly Iranian government) and from the other side (fake manifestations organized by tele-guided protestors) the secret services of Israel (anti-Netanyahu side) and one part of the US establishment (anti-Trump side).

Today's stupid Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia fail to understand that, after the abolition of the caliphate, there is no Islam. To set up an empire, Muslims do not need the Hadith and the various Madhhab. They need the Art of the Empire. Timur (Tamerlane) is far more important than prophet Muhammad today. Not in order to start fighting stupidly and idiotically (like the idiotic Islamists here and there), but to make sense of Timur's mental skills, faculties, perceptual powers and instantaneous reflexes / reactions. That's why Sharaf al Din Ali Yazdi and his Zafarnameh are more important than the Quran - not as just a reading, but to first study and understand Timur's unmatched strategic capacities and later to reproduce them within the present context against all the enemies of the Islamic world.

en.wikipedia.org

Sharaf al-Din Ali Yazdi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Zafarnama (Yazdi biography) - Wikipedia

The war is imperial, not religious. The Western enemies of the Muslims want to

a) divert all Muslims to fake theologies that have been deliberately and systematically presented to them as 'religion' (i.e. Islam),

b) engulf them in this idiocy, and

c) utilize them for their calamitous agendas.

A fake Mahdi and a fake prophet Jesus have been produced (with microchips in their stupid heads and without knowing it) and they may 'appear' in public, if some evil agendas are successfully advanced.

Who are today's best Muslims?

Putin and Xi Jinping!

The only who block the advance of the evil Western agendas.

Extra readings:

Published before 5 years:

academia.edu

Zionist - Freemasonic - Jesuit Agendas in Conflict or Superposition: End Times' Sequence & Trajectories

First published in: https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/zionist-freemasonic-jesuit-agendas-in-conflict-or-superposition-end-times-

Published before 11 years:

academia.edu

The Alexandria Crime Highlights Al Qaeda's Identity as a Freemasonic Fabrication - by Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Life continued peaceful in Alexandria today, Sunday, 2nd of January 2011; certainly, there was a widespread feeling of sadness for the undes

Notice the Al Qaeda Homunculi, the "front office" and the "back office"!

Best wishes for Mawlid un-Nabi,

Best regards,

Shamsaddin

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Download the text in Word doc.:

academia.edu

Iran 2022: Typical Freemasonic-Zionist Proxy War between Ayatollahs and Protestors at the Detriment of the Average Iranians

There is nothing Islamic in the Islamic Republic of Iran except the popular religion (attested in non-Westernized people) and the historical