[Foreword: this article contains the information provided on the paper presented during the 5th International Medieval Meeting Lleida, hosted at Lleida University (Spain) between 25th and 26th June 2015]
* * *
Abstract:
Medieval Ages were not limited to Europe, but extended far and beyond to
another side of the world that Medievalists sometimes fail to mention, a side
that offers a whole new world of knowledge and enlightenment. At first stage, a
brief introduction will be made to the subject of this paper and the manner in
which it shall develop. The following pages will deal with the main purpose of
this research, that is exposing the importance of Avesta’s influence inside the
writing of Ferdowsī’s
Šāh-nāmeh, since it has
been already established that this poet indeed made use of these compilation of
sacred Zoroastrian texts as a source to compose his work. All along this
journey through Ancient Religion and Literature, some proofs will be provided
to show how the Avestan roots remained in Persian Medieval Literature’s
masterpiece, the Šāh-nāmeh,
especially in one of its most famous characters, the Great Bird, Simurgh.
Keywords: Simurgh,
Avesta, Zoroastrianism, Saēna, Šāh-nāmeh, Persian
Literature.
Resumen:
La Edad Media no estuvo limitada a Europa, sino que se extendió hasta el otro
lado del mundo, un mundo que a menudo los medievalistas olvidan mencionar. Otro
lado que ofrece todo un mundo nuevo de conocimiento e iluminación. Para
empezar, se proporcionará una breve introducción al objeto de este trabajo, y
la manera en que se desarrollará. En las siguientes páginas lidiaran con el
propósito principal de esta investigación, que es poner de manifiesto la
importante influencia del Avesta durante la escritura del Šāh-nāmeh de Ferdowsī, ya que ha sido
establecido que el poeta utilizó esta compilación de textos sagrados del
Zoroastrismo como fuente para componer su trabajo. A lo largo de este viaje a
lo largo de este viaje a través de la religión antigua y la literatura, se
mostrarán pruebas que ilustren cómo las raíces avésticas se mantuvieron en la
obra maestra de la literatura persa medieval: el Šāh-nāmeh, especialmente en uno de sus personajes más famosos: el
Gran Ave, Simurgh.
Palabras clave: Simurgh, Avesta,
Zoroastrismo, Saēna, Šāh-nāmeh, Literatura
Persa.
1.
Introduction to Zoroastrianism
First
and foremost, it is essential to make this brief introduction to Zoroastrianism
as a religion. Unless indicated, temporal framework referred in this article
about Mazdean religion will oscilate between 5th century BCE, when
Zoroastrians can be found for first time on written registers[1],
and the Islamic conquest of Persia, around 650 CE. This was the official
worship of Achaemenids, Parthians and Sassanids, and, surprisingly, it is one
of the earliest monotheist examples of cult. Avesta refers to the compilation
of sacred texts in this worship. Jean Kellens highlighted the double importance
of these texts, as they are the only testimonies of the Mazdean culture and the
Avestan language at the same time[2]. Despite its documental apparition did not took place
until 5th century BCE, it is quite possible its true origins date
back from a thousand years before, at least[3].
The main root of Avestan cult may have had its origin
inside an indo-iranian system that combined both traditions and mystical
thoughts[4].
In fact, Avesta itself took a high percentage of the famous Indian Ṛgveda, which is quite an example of this common birth.
Generally it is significant how much Zoroastrian religion shares with the Vedic
cult, and a number of good works have been written about this matter[5].
Although it is not possible to deal with this topic at the moment, as a
starting point to know Zoroastrianism there is an important idea to bear in
mind: it is inseparable from its Indian neighbour.
 |
| Faravahar, the human representation of the Glory, which iconography and true meaning are still under study |
It has
been considered important to briefly describe the sources included in this
research individually, as they represent important exemplars inside Pahlavi
Literature. First of all, Dādestān Mēnōg ī Kherad,
«Judgements of the Wisdom Spirit», translated by Edward William West inside the
collection Sacred Books of the East in 1885. Mary Boyce points out this
text as an extended version of the andarz literature, wisdom literature,
which was very popular at the time of the Sassanid dynasty[6].
Through the path of knowledge, the main character embarks on his journey in
search of wisdom.
Next come Bahrām Yašt and Rašn Yašt, both translated by James Darmesteter and included in his
publication of the Zend Avesta, second volume, in 1883. The Yašt are hymns in praise of different
divinities or genies, compiled in Achaemenid times as Boyce and Carlo Gereti
suggest, but ultimately gathered during the reign of Khosrow II[7].
Straightaway was chosen Vizīdagīhā ī Zādspram, «Selections of Zādspram»,
as well translated by West in 1880. Written in the 9th century,
consists of excerpts on the Avesta in several matters, becoming a summary of
the fundamental beliefs in Sassanian church.
And last but not least, the Bundahišn,
the «Primal Creation», again brought into English by West in 1897. This text
was compiled between the Arab conquest of Persia around 650 and 1198, according
to Gereti and Boyce. It is a complex cosmographic and cosmological piece of
work, which relates the detailed and particular vision of the world in the
Avestan religion.
All these sources were
read and analyzed in this study, as they all include mentions of a particular
Avestan character, the bird Saēna. This is, precisely,
the one West, Darmesteter and others distinguished as the main prefiguration of
Simurgh; however, it is not exactly that Saēna will became Simurgh, per se,
or that the only Avestan features Simurgh got came from previous ancient bird.
That would be a mistaken assumption. The main point is that Ferdowsī assembled many different Avestan characteristics
in his birdlike character, creating a creature quite similar to the former Saēna.
 |
| Easter Imperial Eagle. Pekka Fagel, 2012 |
2. Saēna, the griffin bird
It is important to begin by defining who or what
is Saēna. Saēna appears in all the sources previously mentioned in many different
forms. The most popular is this one, mərəgō saēnō, which
already provides interesting information about the bird. According to the English-Avesta Dictionary published in 1909 by Kavasji Edalji Kanga,
from Bombay University, the first word corresponds to «bird». The
second one, however, was not found in this dictionary, but linked to Sanskrit
as Hans-Peter Schmidt proposed in his own research about Simurgh in 2002.
Schmidt connected the term saēnō with śyená/zyena, the
Sanskrit word for «bird of
prey», «eagle» more
specifically[8].
It has been then assumed this is a loanword from Sanskrit to Avestan, and Saēna shows up as a gigantic bird of prey.
Enormous and powerful, Saēna is also related to the power of the weather and, in that way,
strongly correlated to the agricultural cycles and fertility of the lands. This
passage provides a very illustrative depiction of the size and rain powers of
the bird:
«He is like that great brid, Saēna; he is like the big clouds, full of water, that beat
the mountains», (Bahrām Yašt, XIV, XV, 41)[9].
According to the hymns, the bird Saēna lives in the Tree known as the many-seeded:
«Wheter thou, O holy Rašnu! art on the
tree of the eagle, that stands in the middle of the sea Vourukaṧa, that is
called the tree of good remedies, the tree of powerful remedies, the tree of
all remedies, and on which rest the seeds of all plants; we invoke, we bless Rašnu, the strong. I
invoke his friendship towards this var
prepared», (Bahrām Yašt, XIII, X, 17)[10].
But what is exactly the task of Saēna in this Avestan universe and what does it have to do with the Tree
of Many Seeds? In this passage, a different form can be seen referring to the
creature, using the «griffin
bird» term. All the translators
state this griffin bird is no other than the eagle, the bird of prey, Saēna:
«The
nest of the griffin bird is on the tree opposed to harm, the many-seeded. Whenever
he rises aloft a thousand twigs will shoot out from that tree, and when he
alights he breaks off the thousand twigs and bites the seed from them. […] and
his work is this, that he collects those seeds which are bitten from the tree
of many seeds, which is opposed to harm, and he scatters (parganded) them there
where Tishtar seizes the water; so that, while Tishtar shall seize the water,
together with those seeds of all kinds, he shall rain them on the world with
the rain» (MK, LXIII, 37-42)[11].
So, inside the Avestan
cosmological thought, Saēna was in charge of
spreading those thousands of seeds into the water of the star Tištar, and together they could rain all these seeds
on the land. This reinforces the strong bond between Saēna and fertility and agriculture; along with Tištar, they allowed plants to grow. In that land and
in that period, rain and storm were feared and adored simultaneously. If all
this information is taken under account, we could also assume that this tree
could most definitely called the tree of life, as it’s from this tree that all
the seeds sprout, giving life to the land of men.
 |
| Stone panel from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II. Nimrud, northern Iraq. Neo-Assyrian, 883-859 BCE |
3.
Simurgh and the Šāh-nāmeh
What
could be said about Saēna is already exposed.
Now we are travelling to the 10th century, in Persia, when the Great
Bird Simurgh was conceived and to this day remains. Completed in 1010, the Šāh-nāmeh or the «Book of Kings» is the most
famous example of Persian Medieval Literature. Following a structure in three
great dynasties with fifty different kings and heroes, it was ordered as a
compilation of all the glorious past of Persia, from the same beginning of
Humanity until the last of Sassanid Kings. It is also the longest composition
ever made by a single author, reaching 60,000 verses.
As it was mentioned before, it’s taken for granted
that Ferdowsī made
use of the Avestan sources to gather information for his poem, as well as other
previous texts[12]. But it’s
in his masterpiece where Simurgh can be found. She, because it’s a female bird,
is mentioned throughout the work, but has her special and particular prominence
in the story of the White Prince Zāl, father of the notorious warrior
Rostam[13].
King Sām was praying
for a male heir, but none of his concubines could get pregnant. Finally his
favourite one gave birth to a child who was completely white. He suffered from
albinism, which was interpreted as a demoniac sign. Consequently, Sām sent the
baby away, into the ladder of Mount Alborz, so the wild beasts will devour this
days old baby. However, it happened that the Queen of Heavens, Simurgh, heard
the baby’s cry and felt sorry for him. She took prince Zāl to the peak of the
Alborz and raised him as one of her offspring. When the moment came for Zāl to
come back to his father, who by then was begging the Empress of Heavens to
bring his child back, Simurgh descended the White Prince from the Alborz so he
could fulfill his destiny: to be the father of the greatest warrior of them
all, Rostam.
 |
| Tabriz, Iran. Attributed to Abd al-Aziz. Šāh-nāmeh of Šah Tahmasp, ca. 1525-1535. The Freer Gallery and Arthur Sackler Gallery, Washintong |
During
the lecture of the Šāh-nāmeh, all the
special features or characteristics of Simurgh were put together, so now they
could be offered in a shorter more concise manner. The first attribute of the
Queen of Heavens is the power of storm. Every time she appears on scene, the
sky gets darker and storm clouds crowd together up above[14].
Much like Saēna, this gives Simurgh a
great deal of power over
agriculture and fertility of the lands that would produce nothing
without the rain.
She also possesses curative powers, and what is
healing but taking away the harm and bringing the good. Simurgh cures many
wounds throughout the story by licking them or caressing them with her
feathers. Furthermore, she has the knowledge of physicians and knows how to
prepare mixtures for the injured. Here a union of skills can be found, as
Simurgh has healing abilities within herself, but also owns a special herb that
can cure human illness. In Mesopotamian tradition, there existed a particular
plant called Haomā which was
widely used as a powerful narcotic. This herb appears in Avestan texts as part of
the Tree of Many Seeds that grows in the sea Vourukaṧa[15],
which was mentioned before. The tree stands in the middle of that cosmic ocean,
and according to the Yašt, also Mount Alborz grows
straight from the depths of that mass of water[16].
To conclude, it seemed appropriate to bring up
another passage from the Yašt related
to one of the most important actions of Simurgh in the Šāh-nāmeh. The passage
where she brought the White Prince back to his father was described previously.
In this episode, Simurgh gave Zāl two of her magical feathers as a symbol of
royalty, glory and protection:
«Take these feathers of mine with you, so that you will always live under
my protection, since I brought you up beneath my wings with my own children. If
any trouble comes to you, if there is talk of good and ill, throw one of my
feathers into the fire, and my glory will at once appear to you. I shall come
to you in the guise of a black cloud and bring you safely back here»[17].
If we move back to the Avesta this same story can be
found:
«Ahura
Mazdā answered: ‘Take thou a feather of that bird
with… feathers, the Vərəthraqna, O Spitama
Zarathustra! With that feather thou shatl rub thy own body, with that feather
thou shalt curse back thy enemies’. ‘If a man holds a bone of that strong bird,
or a feather of that strong bird, no one can smite or turn to flight that
fortunate man. The feather of that bird of birds brings him help; it brings
unto him the homage of men, it maintains him his glory.’ […]‘All tremble
therefore before me; all my enemies tremble before me and fear my strength and
victorious force and the fierceness established in my body’» (Bahrām Yašt, XIV, XIV, 35-38)[18].
Thus it has been shown how these Avestan features can
be tracked along all the verses of the poem, mostly inside the creation of such
an important character as the bird Simurgh. It is a sample of how the Šāh-nāmeh was not only
considered as a literary work, but at the same time as a powerful tool to
recover and gather up all the glorious Persian past that threatened to withdraw
under the Islamic dominion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anklesaria, B. T. (trad.): Greater
Bundahishn, Bombay, 1956. Edición digital preparada por J. H. Peterson,
2002. Available online.
Avrin, L.: Scribes,
Script, and Books: The Book Arts from Antiquity to the Renaissance.
Chicago, American Library Asociation, 1991.
Bashiri, I.: Characters of Ferdowsī’s Shahnameh.
Iran Chamber Society, 2003.
Blois, F. de: Persian
Literature, a bio-bibliographical survey. Begun by the late C. A. Storey. Vol.
v, parts 1-3, Londres, The Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1992-1997.
Boyce, M.: «Middle Persian Literature», Handbuch der
Orientalistik. Leiden, 1968.
Boyce, M.: A History
of Zoroastrianism, vol. I. Leiden,
Brill, 1975.
Boyce, M.: A History
of Zoroastrianism, vol. II. Leiden,
Brill, 1982.
Browne, E. G.: A
Literary History of Persia, vol i. Curzon, Curzon Press, ed. 1999.
Brujin, J. T. P. de:
«Mathnawī, 2. Persian»,
en: Encyclopaedia of
Islam. Preparing by a number of leading orientalists, vol.
i. Leiden, Brill, 1979-2004, p.
832-835.
Brujin, J. T. P. de: General introduction to Persian Literature.
Londres, Tauris, 2009.
Darmesteter, J.: The Zend-Avesta. Part II: The Sirozahs, Yasts and Nyayis. Delhi,
Motilal Banarsidass, 2007.
Davis, D. (trad.): The
Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. Londres, Penguin Books Classics,
2007.
Davis, D.: Epic and sedition: The case of Ferdowsi’s
Shannameh. Washintong D.C., Mage Publishers, 2006.
Fouchécour, C. H. de: «Iran viii. Persian Literature (2) Classical»,
Encyclopædia Iranica. Nueva York,
edición digital, 2006.
Gereti, C. G.: «Middle Persian Literature i. Pahlavi Literature», Encyclopædia Iranica. Nueva York, digital
edition, 2009.
Hinnells, J. R.: Persian Mythology. Nueva York, P. Bedrick Books, 1985.
Kanga, K. E.: An
English-Avesta Dictionary. Bombay, 1909. Avaliable online.
Kellens, J.:
«Avesta, the holy book of zoroastrians», Encyclopædia
Iranica. Nueva York, digital edition, 1987.
KHLOPIN,
I. N.: «Zoroastrism – Location and time of its origins», Iranica Antiqua, vol. XXVIII, 1993, pp. 95-116.
MacKenzie, N.: «Bundahišn», Encyclopædia Iranica. Nueva York, digital
edition, 1989.
Morgan, D.: Medieval
Persia 1040-1797. Londres, Longman, 1988.
Rypka, J.: History of
Iranian Literature. Dordrecht, D. Reidil Publishing, 1968.
Schdmit, H.: «Simorḡ», Encyclopædia
Iranica. Nueva York, digital edition, 2002.
Shreve Simpson, M.: «Šāh-nāma iv. Illustrations», Encyclopædia
Iranica. Nueva York, edición digital, 2009.
Tafażżolī, A.: «Dadestan Mēnōg
ī Xrad», Encyclopædia Iranica. Nueva
York, digital edition, 2005
West, E. W. (trad.): Pahlavi texts. Part I,
The Bundahis, Bahman Yast, and Shayast La-Shayast. Delhi, Motilal
Banarsidass, ed. 1993.
West, E. W. (trad.): Pahlavi Texts. Part V, Marvels of Zoroastrism. Delhi,
Motilal Banarsidass, ed. 2004.
West, E. W. (trad.): Pahlavi Texts. Part III, Dina-i Mainog-i Khirad, Sikand-Gümanik Vigar,
Sad Dar. Delhi,
Motilal Banarsidass, ed. 2005.
[1]
KHLOPIN, I. N.:
«Zoroastrism – Location and time of its origins», Iranica Antiqua, vol. XXVIII, 1993, p. 95.
[2]
Kellens, J.: «Avesta, the holy book of zoroastrians», Encyclopædia Iranica. Nueva
York, edición digital, 1987, p. 2.
[3]
FOLTZ, R. : Religions of Iran: from Prehistory to the Present, Oneworld Publications, London, 2013,
p. 4. Boyce, M.: A History
of Zoroastrianism, vol. I.
Leiden, Brill, 1975.
[4]
FOLTZ,
R. (op.cit.) pp.
4-6.
[5] Referenced the publications of Mary Boyce, Richard
Foltz, Jean Kellens y Carlo Gereti.
[6]
Boyce, M.: «Middle Persian Literature», Handbuch der Orientalistik. Leiden, p. 34.
[7] Ibidem,, p. 34. Gereti, C. G.: «Middle Persian Literature i. Pahlavi Literature», Encyclopædia Iranica. Nueva
York, 2009, p. 1.
[8]
Ibidem, p. 1.
[9]
Darmesteter, J.: The
Zend-Avesta. Part II: The Sirozahs, Yasts and Nyayis. Delhi,
Motilal Banarsidass, ed. 2007, p. 242.
[10]
Ibidem, p. 173.
[11]
West, E. W. (trad.): Pahlavi Texts. Part III, Dina-i Mainog-i Khirad, Sikand-Gümanik Vigar, Sad Dar. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, ed. 2005, p. 112.
[12]
Blois, F. de: Persian
Literature, a bio-bibliographicalsurvey. Begun by the late C. A. Storey. Vol.
v, parts 1-3, Londres, The Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1992-1997, p. 121; Brujin, J. T. P. de: General introduction to Persian Literature.
Londres, Tauris, 2009, p. 338.
[13]
The mentioned passage can be found in: Davis, D. (trad.): The
Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. Londres, Penguin Books
Classics, 2007, pp. 63-103.
[14]
Davis, D. (trad.), op.
cit., p. 409, 410
[15]
West, E. W., op. cit. (nota 27), ed.
1993, p. 111.
[16]
Anklesaria,
B. T. (trad.): Greater
Bundahishn, Bombay, 1956. Edited by J. H. Peterson, 2002.
[17]
Davis,
D. (trad.), op. cit., p. 66.
[18]
Darmesteter, J., op. cit., p. 241.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario