SHAHNAMEH

OF FERDOWSI

THE SAVIOUR OF THE IRANIAN CULTURE

Fariborz Rahnamoon

Shahnameh the “Book of Kings” was written
by Ferdowsi Toosi the Persian poet, in the 10th century CE, It has all the
characteristics of a holy book save that it was written by a poet and was meant
to save the progressive Iranian culture and language, which it did. The
religious aspect of it is concealed because it was written during the Islamic
reign and Islam does not tolerate praise of any other belief.

Ferdowsi speaks with a heavy heart and with regret
when he sees that his beloved Iran
and its glorious culture and good religion are being destroyed. The feeling is
well described by a contemporary Persian poet.

I speak with a heavy heart listen to me

If you are open-minded listen to me

It’s better to be burnt to death by fire

Than to live as a slave all your life

If the purpose of life is blind devotion

Dying two hundred times is better than its
continuation

It is regretful that Iran be ruined

And become the habitat of leopards and lions

In this gold bearing land of Iran Zamin

There were none but the followers of the Pak Din[i]

Their entire religion was about benevolence and
justice

With it the country was free and flourishing

Who lit this fire in our paradise?

That burnt the heart of our dear ones

Where has our ancient knowledge and wisdom gone?

That that the love for our nation has been forgotten
by us. [ii]

HISTORICAL SETTING

LEADING TO THE CREATION OF
SHAHNAMEH

The Iranians under the Sassanians had been fighting
the Byzantine from 608 to 622 CE and both countries had been weakened. Iran was in
turmoil; the liberal religious outlook of the rulers like Kai-Ghobaad had
promoted the formation of religious fractions and the country was divided
between the followers of Zarvanism, Mani, Mazdak and the official religion
Zoroastrianism. Also within the royal house there was turmoil and the throne
changed hands in quick succession, like in a short period from 629-632 CE two
sisters Azarmidokht and Pourandokht ruled Iran in succession trying to
preserve the throne before the young Yazdgerd was enthroned.

During the same period in Arabia an ambitious trader,
who had married a rich widow nearly twice his age, had with the help of an
Iranian Magi by the name of Mobed Dinyar (later called Salman e Fars) and the
Jewish tribe of “Qurayza”[iii]
fought with and conquered most of the Arab tribes and by pronouncing himself a
prophet of God, united the warring Arabs. The Arab hordes were always engaged
in cross border raids in search of food and Persian wealth. Those hordes that
invaded Iran
in 635 CE at Ghadesiyeh managed to kill the commander in chief of the Iranian
army in a guerilla type war fare; this loss demoralized the Iranian army and
led to its defeat. The Iranians under young Yazdgerd mustered up an army and
stood against the advancing Arabs at Nahavand but were defeated in 642 CE and
the centralized Sassanian government lost control. Seventeen years after the
start of the Arab invasion, in 652 CE Yazdgerd was killed and thereafter
without a centralized leadership the people resisted the Arabs in small pockets
wherever they could.

Genocide

The Arabs captured and killed all able-bodied Iranians
wherever they saw resistance. As reported by Balkhi[iv]
in his book "Parsnameh", when the people of Taleghan in Khorasan
revolted and killed the Arab governor, Abdollah Ben Amir the Arab Khalifeh
ordered that Iranians be hanged on both side of the road for a distance of 25
kilometers (4farsang). Similarly when the people of Estakhr in Pars revolted,
40000 men were killed and with their blood the water mill was made to run.
Biruni[v]
in his book "Asar al Baghiyeh" has recorded many such incidents
where, as a punishment, the Arabs shed as much Iranian blood as was necessary
to be able to run the water mills with it. Biruni also records how Kotaibeh the
Arab ruler ordered the killing of all scholars and the learned people in province of Kharazm and had their books burnt. It
was common practice to burn scholars in the pyre of their books or to cut or
burn their figures so they could no longer write. In the city of Ghom the Arabs on one day
rounded up 70 of the leading citizens and beheaded them in the city square.

Genocide by the Arabs continued against the Iranians
even when they converted to Islam. Iranian Muslims were called Mavalis and were
considered second grade to Arabs. They were not allowed to sit in the presence
of an Arab and they had to walk one step behind an Arab. In 697 CE Arabic was
made the official language of Iran.

The revolt against the Arabs was a continuous affair
and there were many famous leaders who lead the Iranians in their fight. The
Behzadans sons of Vandad Hormoz known as Abu Moslem were among the early
leaders. In 814 CE an Iranian by the name of Taheri killed Amin the Khalifa
(the Arab ruler) of Bagdad. Later there were
leaders like Babak-e-Khoramdin who engaged the Arabs in guerilla-warfare for 21
years from 816 to 837 CE but finally an Iranian by the name of Afshin betrayed
him. Babak was taken prisoner to the Khalifa in Baghdad who ordered the Arab henchman cut his
limbs. Babak is said to have drenched his own face with his bleeding arms to
deprive the Arabs from seeing his face turn pale due to loss of blood.

Other heroes were Yagub Lais an Iranian ruler who traced
his ancestors to Garshasp the Zarathushti ruler; he revolted against the Arabs
240 years after the Arab invasion, in 879 CE. The Samanians, who traced their
ancestors to Bahram Chobin the Sasanian Vazir (minister), and the Dailamians
were other Iranian rulers who fought the Arabs. Barsis, Behafarid, Sanbaad
(Sinbad) and the Barmaki's were some of the many Iranians who led revolts
against the Arabs.

According to the historian “Tabari” the
people of Paars & Kerman stood up against the Arab governor and the
representative of Ali the son in law of Prophet Mohammad, and did not pay the
infidel tax (Jaziyeh). The governor fled out of fear for his life and Ali Abu
Taleb dispatched “Ziyad” with a large army to put down the
rebellion and extract the taxes from the Iranians.[vi]

Shahnameh of Ferdowsi

In such an atmosphere of nationalism and revolt
Ferdowsi was born in Toos in the province
of Khorasan, the year was
940 CE. He was born in a family of landlords and was well educated. He started writing
the Shahnameh at the age of 40. It was a time when the Iranian culture and
language were in danger of alienation. Ferdowsi aimed at saving both of them.
He reminded the Iranians of their great cultural past in pure Paarsi. As the
Persian saying goes, "He hit two objects with one stone." He saved
both the culture and the language.

Wherever the Arabs went, they destroyed the indigenous
culture and language and replaced it with their own. Not that it was better or
more progressive; in fact, it was the opposite, but because they were made to
believe that, it is the language of God and their way of life is as dictated by
God.

A very good example of how they destroyed great
cultures can be seen in the history of Egypt. A nation that had the
science and technology to built Pyramids that baffles scholars to this day; was
converted to an Arab nation. The Arabs lived in tents and had no significant
structure in their whole country; even the house of their God was a square
block of stone. What today scholars wrongly classify as Islamic Art and
Architecture did not originate in Arabia nor
did Islam inspire it. These monuments were the pre-Islamic monuments and it was
the love of the native people of the non-Arab nations for their pre-Islamic
national monuments, that in order to save them they converted them into mosques
or named them after ancient Semitic prophets. The Sassanian fire temples that
were converted into mosques became model of future mosques all over the Islamic
world. The Iranians in order to save their national monuments named them
"The throne of Suleiman (Solomon)", "The grave of
Suleiman", "Daniel's Tomb" and so on. The tomb of Cyrus the
great was disguised as the tomb of an Islamic prophet and preserved until recent
times.[vii]

The first nation that stood up against the Arabs to
preserve its culture and language was Iran.  They did preserve both but under a
coverall. After the initial few centuries of resistance when they came to
themselves and saw it was too late they planed and created their own brand of
Islam and while the people in power used Arabic the general public preserved
the national language. This can be seen in the structure of modern Persian
language. Arabic equivalent of Persian words are considered more respectful
because people in power used them. In pure Persian we ask some one to
“come in” by saying “Befarmaeed Too" but in Arabised
Farsi we say "Tasreef Befarmaeed Too". The Arabised form is looked
upon as sophisticated.

Even the name of the Persian language is Arabised by
calling it FARSI instead of PAARSI because the Arabic language, in which God is
believed to have spoken, does not have the letter "P" and what God
did not pronounce let no man pronounce it.

I endured pain and suffering for thirty years

Iranian culture I revived along with Paarsi

Basee ranj bordam dar in sall e see

Ajam zendeh kardam be din Paarsi

RIDDLES IN SHAHNAMEH

During the time of Ferdowsi, a non-Iranian king was
ruling Iran.
Glorifying Iran
and its non-Islamic culture was not appreciable. Ferdowsi was under great
restrain, time was not on his side, he was not young enough to wait it out, he
was not sure if he could even complete his work. The only solution was to say
everything but mask it; he did that with great success and said everything but
left it to his future readers to uncover the hidden meanings. He made sure to
let his readers know about it, for he says.

Do not think of these as lies and fantasies

Do not think that, systems remain unchanged in time

Whatever does not sound right to your intellect

There is a meaning concealed in it

Tu in ra durg o fasaneh madan

Be eksan ravesh dar zamaneh madan

Az o harche andar khorad ba kerad

Degar bar rah ramz mani barad

Ferdowsi tells us that one of the main sources of the Shahnameh
was the Avesta and the Mobeds.

There was a book from ancient times

Immense information existed therein

It was spread among the Mobeds

From it the wise benefited

Yeki nameh bood az gaheh bastan

Faravan bod oh andaron dastan

Parakandeh dar dast har Mobedi

Az oh bahreh e bordeh har behkradi

The Shahnameh begins with the sentence “Be Nam e
Khodavand e Jan o Kherad” which means “In the name of the God of
Creation & Wisdom” and that is how Ferdowsi has translated Ahura
Mazda[1].
Then he talks about “Wisdom” and calls it the most important
creation of God after which he gives his version of the creation theory. It is
important to note that he says God created thing from nothing. It was just the
thought of God that started the chain reaction.

Ke Yazdan ze naacheese cheeze afareed

Bedan ta tavanae amad padeed

In the Shahnameh, we find guidance to live a morally
progressive life and there are stories that lead us to such conclusions.
Ferdowsi starts the Iranian history with the mythological king Keyumars as the
first leader of human beings. The Avesta name is Giumarta meaning “first
mortal”.

The present day copy of the Shahnameh is expunged of
the role of Zarathushtra in Iranian history and at times the name of Mohammad
the prophet of Islam inserted by the biased and ignorant scribe even at a
period in history when Islam did not exist.

Ferdowsi discusses the teaching of Zarathushtra; he
talks about Zarvan, Mani and Mazdak. When he sees that the rights of women in
Islamic Iran are oppressed he reminds them of the stature of women in ancient Iran and of the great women that served Iran.

Some characters in the Shahnameh are symbolic they
represent an idea or a person that Ferdowsi did not want to name. Like Zal the father
of Rostam explains the philosophy of Zarvanism. Rostam the most famous
character in the Shahnameh has an extraordinary long life spanning over many
dynasties and for sure is symbolic. About Rostam Ferdowsi says:

Rostam was a strong man in Sistan

I made of him the Mythical Rostam

Rostam Yali bood dar Sistan

Man kardamesh Rostam Dastan

Some believe that Rostam represented the people of Iran and Raksh his horse represented Iran his
country[viii]
some others believe that Raksh represented his wisdom. Strength and wisdom
together bring success; whenever Rostam has done anything irresponsible or
foolish he has not been riding Raksh. Like when he meets Tahmineh the daughter
of Iran’s
enemy and conceives Sohrab he had lost Raksh again we see that he dismounts Raksh
to kills his son Sohrab.

Rostam has this to say about himself:

"I
am a free man and no slave, and am servant alone unto God; and without Rostam
Kai Kaous is as nothing. And the world is subject unto me, and Raksh is my
throne, and my sword is my seal, and my helmet my crown. And but for me,
who called forth Kai Kobad, thine eyes had never looked upon this throne. And
had I desired it I could have sat upon its seat. But now am I weary of thy
follies, and I will turn me away from Iran, and when this Turk shall have put
you under his yoke I shall not learn thereof."

Rostam
long life surely makes him a symbol of the Iranian people and his actions
represent the path the people have taken. Initially Rostam follows the path of
Asha and his words and deeds are ethical & morally correct, then latter in
history his ethic changes he lies, he conceals the truth and goes against Asha
and in the process suffers, he kills his own son and finally looses his own
life. Symbolically truth represents the teaching of Zarathushtra and concealing
truth or lying for personal or common good represents post-Zarathushtrian
beliefs of the Iranian people.

Ferdowsi
talks of “Dev Sapid” the white monster by which he means the over
indulgence in the good things in life that makes one lazy.

To
uncover the concealed meaning in Shahnameh we need to understand the Gathas
first in a non-Semitic spirit. Unfortunately, we look for Semitic parallels and
translate the Gathas giving it a Semitic form. For example, Zarathushtra in the
Gathas talks of God “Ahura Mazda” only eight times while the
translator’s of the Gathas talk of God more then 340 times. This is one
simple example to prove the point.

Shahnameh
like the Gatha gives importance to Wisdom (Kherad). In the Gathas, we see that
Zarathushtra starts his teachings by first seeking the perfect-ness of the mind
– Wisdom.

This I seek with reverence

With uplifted hands

The perfect-ness of the mind, Wisdom (Mazda)

The first good rule of Asha is

All should aspire to make

Good use of the wisdom in the mind

Thus bringing harmony to the universe

As-well as the human spirit

Zarathushtra - Gatha – Yasna HA 28.1(FR)

In
the Shahnameh Ferdowsi does the same he talks of the importance of Wisdom at
the very start of the Shahnameh.

Kherad behtar az har che Izad dad

Wisdom is the best creation of God

This
is against the very base of the Semitic belief and we see that Adam and Eve
were driven out of Paradise for having eaten
of the fruit of knowledge of good and bad. In the ancient temples of Babylonia
and in Greece and Rome knowledge and wisdom
was the property of the temple and its keepers, others who ventured into the
inner conclave of the temple had their days cut short by the gods.

To solve the riddles in the Shahnameh we first need to
understand the ancient culture and religion of Iran as was practiced before the
destruction caused by Alexander of Macedonia.

HOME

[1] Ahura means Creator or Creation and Mazda means Wisdom.
Thus Ahura Mazda means “Creator of Wisdom” and Mazda Ahura means
“Wisdom in Creation” – see Iran Zamin Vol. 1 # 1 October 2000
or visit http://www.ancientiran.com
and read “Meaning of Mazda & Ahura in the Gatha”

Notes

[i] Paak Din or Beh Din is the other name for Zarathushti
religion.

[ii] The poem was written in Persian by Dr. Khanak Eshghi
Sanati freely translated into English. For the poem in Persian see the Persian
section.

[iii] After Mohammad conquered Mecca and was accepted as a Prophet he wiped
out the entire Jewish tribe of Qurayza with whom he had a treaty of cooperation
(Bayat).

[iv] Balkhi (1207-1273 CE) also know as Rumi, was a Persian
scholar & poet of the Sufi school of thoughts

[v] Biruni (973 -1048 CE) was a Persian scholar &
scientist.

[vi] “Tabari’s History” Vol. 6 pg. 2657
and Vol. 1 pg. 228 & 333.

[vii] Unfortunately the Islamic government of Iran has
commissioned a dam which will flood many historic sites and come within 6
Kilometers of the tomb of Khurosh (Cyrus the great) which is a wink away for a flood
in these days of global warming.

[viii] Arbab Rostam Zartoshty founder of "Shahnameh
Foundation of Vancouver”.

***