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King Jamshed with the "Jam-e-Jamshed"
which was probably a device that revealed the past and foretold the
future. |
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Faridun with Gurz flanked by his two
brothers as seen in the dream by Zohak. |
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Manizjeh had an unconscious Bizjan
carried away to Turan. |
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The birds flew in the air taking king
Kae Kaus along with them. |
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A dying Sohrab in the lap of his father
Rustam. |
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Aspandiar gets ready to deal a blow to
the lioness. |
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Princess Katayun crowns Gushtasp who was
sitting in a corner. |
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On seeing the gigantic blaze, the
soldiers were terrified but king Hoshang recognized the majesty of
Ahura Mazda in the fire. |
Is the Shah-Nameh a lengthy poem, a collection
of stories or history? It looks like a little bit of all. My first
acquaintance with the epic was when, as a child, I told a tale about how a
fight started between boys on the playground and someone said “he is
reciting the Shahnama”, implying that the telling was rather lengthy and
hence tiresome.
On being asked, my father explained to me that
the ‘Shahnama’ (variation of Shah-Nameh) was a collection of stories of
the lives of various ancient Persian kings. He then told me the story of
Rustom and Sohrab. My father always held honesty as a high virtue and
made sure that I understood the moral of the story - that lies and
deception were the cause of a grievous tragedy where a father unknowingly
killed his own son. Noting my interest in the telling of that episode, he
mentioned that there were many such stories in the Shah-Nameh, the book of
the Kings of Persia, which I should read when I was older. Unfortunately
Persian was not taught in my school but I did read several English
translations much later in life. My regret is that I never had the
opportunity to learn the Persian language so that I might enjoy it in the
original poetry format.
The Shah-Nameh, originally written as poetry,
traces the history of the Mazdayasni Zarathushtis which starts with
Kayomerz, the first ever leader of the Persians known to history. He was
wise enough to secure the cooperation of wild animals and birds because he
understood their speech. He taught the people about one god Mazda who
was not visible to human eyes except through his creations: the sun and
other lights in the sky, the earth and its vegetation, animals, birds and
finally humans. It
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King Kayomarz commanded great respect
from all living creatures, including animals, and even conversed
with them. |
takes us through the rise and fall of various Persian
dynasties, following the various deeds of kings – wise and foolish acts
and decisions, their state of mind when they made those decisions and the
battles they fought, some out of acquisitive ambition, others out of the
necessity to defend the people of the kingdom.
The poem captures the glory of the Peshdadians
such as Tehmurasp, Jamshed, Minocher who established just governments with
the rule of law, brought prosperity to the people and inspired the loyalty
of mighty warriors such as Sam and Zal. The dynasty came to an end because
of misuse of power by the succeeding rulers who raised heavy taxes for
their own benefit and denied the people justice.
They were followed by the Kyanis whose royal
blood is not just a genetic factor, as some people seem to imply. It
manifested itself in the wise, noble and brave deeds such as the
magnanimity of Kae Kobad who accepted Afrasiyab’s plea for a truce in the
interest of peace for both countries, even though he could have crushed
the invading Turanian army; the spiritual Kae Khushru who relinquished his
wealth and throne in search of more spiritual pursuits; Lohrasp, who did
not inherit the throne but was chosen as his successor by Kae Khushru over
more senior persons, because of his temperance, generosity, patience and
spiritual nature; the rejection by King Gushtasp (also known as Vistasp)
of the Turanian offer of wealth and land if he agreed to abandon
Zarathushtra and his teachings. The downfall of the dynasty was brought
about by acts unworthy of royalty such as judgment swayed by false tale
bearers, unbridled anger leading to cruelty and corruption caused by
power which should be a warning to all those reading this epic.
History teaches that all dynasties have their
rise and fall and the Sassanians were no exception. They began with
aplomb with wise, just and glorious rulers but fell into disarray because
of internal strife and jealousies. This eventually led to conquest by the
Arabs who were not well-disposed to the Persians or their Zarathushti Deen
(religion) resulting in the near decimation of that ethnic group. One is
reminded of those sagacious words: Those who do not heed the lessons of
history are bound to repeat it, often with disastrous results.
While the stories of the Shah-Nameh (literally
the names of kings) are recitations of the deeds of the Kings of the
glorious Persian era and civilization, most of them involve a moral. The
story of Jamshed shows how a benevolent and much admired ruler incurs the
disfavor of his own people because of his later arrogance. His pride at
considering himself almost a god was the cause of his downfall. The story
further cautions against making hasty decisions out of a temporary
discontent. Zohak, the Arab prince who was invited by the Persians to
take over Jamshed’s throne proved to be evil incarnate. The people,
forced to realize their terrible mistake, had to request a descendant of
Jamshed to get rid of Zohak and retake the throne of Persia.
There are stories of the freedom loving
bravery of blacksmith Kaveh; the treachery of Selam and Tur against their
brother Irach, which resulted in their own death eventually; the regret of
the army general Saam at abandoning his infant son Zal because of
prejudice against the color of his hair and subsequent admission of his
mistake which reunited father and son; the steadfastness of princess
Manijeh to her wrongfully imprisoned husband Bizan, who was kept alive due
to her care till he was rescued. We may read about King Vistasp’s
unworthy suspicion of his faithful and blameless son Aspandiar, resulting
in his unjust imprisonment. This contributed to the defeat of the Persian
forces by the invading Turanians, led to the slaying of Prophet
Zarathushtra and marked the beginning of the end of the Kyani dynasty.
These are all lessons which can be instilled
in children at a young age when they would be most effective. Meanwhile
it would be desirable to have our navar/murtup students to read and recite
at least some famous episodes from the Shah-Nameh. Some decades ago the
study of the Shah-Nameh used to be part of the curriculum of the Cama
Athornan Institute of Bombay, even though the Persian words were read in
the Gujarati script. This was also done in some of the Bombay Parsi
schools in olden times. This practice needs to be revived. The Shah-Nameh
has much to teach our youngsters not only about morality but also to hold
our head up high in any society. There is a tendency among some
Zarathushtis to anglicize their names e.g. Arnavaz to Ann and Phiroze to
Phil. Our names from the Shah-Nameh show that we come from Persian
stock. Is it not better to stand out in your milieu than to be lost in
the crowd?
While hoping for some change in the curriculum
of Zarathushti schools, the parents could help by having a copy of the
Shah-Nameh (translations if necessary) in their home from which readings
could be done on a weekly basis and interest generated so that as the
children mature into adulthood, they would be inspired to read the various
episodes in detail and profit from them. Further, it could become a link
between generations, when the current crop of children grow up and pass
along the practice as a family ritual to their children. In many
Christian homes they have regular readings from the Bible every day or at
least once a week. In our home we used to have religious readings for the
family at least once a week, when the children were of school age. Now
that my eldest grandchild is 4 years old, my daughter is looking forward
to continuing the practice with her own family.
The Zarathushti community is generally very
proud of our ancient heroes such as Zal, Rustom, King Vistasp to name a
few. It is interesting to note that all three married outside their
community and religion. Zal married the daughter of Mehrab, King of Kabul
and descendant of the evil Zohak. The union produced the hero Rustom, who
defended the Persian kingdom against invaders several times and whose name
is glorified in the community. Rustom married Tahminah who was also not a
Persian and who produced the valiant Sohrab. King Vistasp married Katabun
who was the daughter of the Kaiser of Rum (Eastern Roman Empire) and who
became the mother of Aspandiar, close associate of Prophet Zarathushtra.
The traditionalists of today would have rejected Aspandiar because of his
foreign mother but Zarathushtra accepted him as his chief friend and
disciple. How many Rustoms, Sohrabs and Aspandiars have our community
lost because of the so-called traditionalists unwillingness to be more
broadminded and accepting? Could some of this conflict in our community
have been avoided, if the over-zealous guardians of the Zarathushti Deen
had made a diligent study of the Shah-Nameh?
Firdausi Toosi (born Abul Kasim Hasan) was an
Irani Muslim poet of the 10th century who was commissioned to
write a complete history of Iran in verse by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. He
was promised a gold coin for each couplet; but when he finished the Shah-Nameh
comprising 60,000 couplets after 35 years of toil he was paid in silver
coins instead of gold. Firdausi could not believe that the Sultan would
cheat him and left the area after writing some verses denigrating the
Sultan and his lineage. Years later, the Sultan was sorry for not keeping
his word and sent 60,000 gold coins to be delivered to Firdausi.
Unfortunately as the men drew near to his residence with the payment, they
saw Firdausi’s coffin being taken for burial. The payment was accepted by
an Imam who had a dam and karvansarai (rest house) erected to fulfill a
dream of Firdausi during his lifetime.
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