North-Western Iran, October 2009
When I was in Kenya on Ibn Battuta's trail earlier this year, I came across two symbols, one at Gede which looked like a stylized cypress tree I thought might be Iranian in origin, and another a cross on a tomb at Ungwana which was not a 'Christian' cross but a universal symbol. At the Alavian Dome in Hamadan, a 12th century Seljuk building, I noticed exactly the same cross on the beautiful stucco carved doorway. As for the cypress tree it is almost identical in shape to the cypress trees on the Apadana staircase at Persepolis, as well as the nakhl, the contraption used in Iran at Ashura to commemorate the martyrdom of the 3rd Imam.
The nakhl, decorated and carried through the streets at Ashura. The cypress tree is symbolic of immortality and is found in graveyards throughout Europe for the same reason. More prosaically, its roots go straight down so are not likely to lift any human remains.
Iranians did emigrate to East Africa in large numbers from the 9th century, especially from Shiraz, which is near Persepolis. I have now set myself a project to find out more about those symbols which adorn so few buildings on Africa's Swahili coast as well as their provenance.
Symbol of a cypress at the entrance to a 12th century mosque in Gede, Kenya.
It was a day of symbols. In Bisotun we visited the site where an English army captain and diplomat, Henry Rawlinson, came across a carving on a cliff face written in three languages; Old Persian, Elamite and neo-Babylonian. Rawlinson dangled from ropes while he painstakingly copied every character which eventually enabled him to decipher the languages. It became to old Iranian/Mesopotamian languages what the Rosetta stone was to hieroglyphics. Old Persian, used at the time of the Achaemenids (from 550BC) was very different from Middle Persian or Pahlavi, used from the time of Alexander and the official language of the Sassanians (from around 300BC), which was not however so different from 'modern' Persian used from the 10th/11th century AD. While the system of writing Old Persian in cuneiform was relatively simple, the grammar was extremely complicated with any noun having 8 different forms, whereas Middle Persian grammar was quite simple, but the system of writing, derived from Aramaic, was difficult. Modern Persian is of course written in Arabic script with a few added letters for sounds in Persian that do not exist in Arabic such as 'p' and 'ch'.
Part of the carving at Bisotun. The part under the carving of roped prisoners before a seated Darius the Great, is all cuneiform script. The prisoner to the far right with a 'wizard's' hat is a Scythian.
For a nation not now renown for its dexterity in other tongues, the British made a considerable contribution to the world of linguistics. (They were responsible for the primary language of Afghanistan changing from Dari, a form of Persian, to Pashtu.) Persian is an Indo-Iranian language like Punjabi, Hindi or Bengali, and is one of several Iranian languages, the others being Kurdish, Baluchi, Pashtu and Ossetic. In 1780 an English judge, Sir William Jones, working with the East India Company, who spoke Persian, Hindi and Latin, noticed similarities in the structure and grammar between Latin and Sanskrit indicating that both had probably developed from another language no longer extant. This was contrary to popular opinion at the time which suggested both Greek and Latin derived from Sanskrit. His studies led to the formation of the discipline of linguistics.
Hamadan is surrounded by mountains; the arrival of fall was announced in grass-carpeted gorges speckled with clumps of poplars and rows of walnut and fruit trees, the foliage of which was a mix of subtle autumnal hues of yellow, gold and orange. It was a holiday and that evening we met many local people at the Ganjnameh, a local beauty spot, where elderly musicians played melancholic songs on violin-type instruments and vendors sold little pots of sour cherries, and whole shelled and pickled walnuts that looked like miniature brains. We were besieged by people who wanted to know where we were from, including a group of local climbers who were geared up for a chilly overnight camp before setting off to climb Mt. Alvand the following day. When we told them America they looked puzzled; "can you come here?" they said, amazed. They then always said, "Welcome to Iran" and "what do you think of our country?"The scaffolding was finally off the dome of the tomb of Oljeitu at Soltaniyeh. It was the first time I had seen the majestic turquoise cupola unfettered. Built in the early 14th century it was built with the intention of housing the remains of Ali, the Shi'a's first Imam. However he lies in an-Najaf and the Iraqis were in no hurry to part with him so the tomb ended up being the resting place of Oljeitu himself. Born of a Christian mother and a Buddhist father, he was baptized a Christian, converted to Buddhism then to Sunni Islam and later to Shi'sim. Aside from the immensity of its octagonal structure, Soltaniyeh is noteworthy for having the first double dome still extant in Iran and for the stunning patterned brickwork on the upper tier in tones of dusky pink and carmine red.
The distinctive brickwork at Soltaniyeh
Takht-i-Suleiman which means 'Throne of Solomon' has nothing to do with either a throne or Solomon. But during the Islamic period, local people knowing nothing of its history, named it in reference to the Quranic story of Solomon. It was a 4th century Sassanian Zoroastrian fire temple, one of the most important in the country, and much later in the 13th century the Ilkhanids built a castle over it.
The skyline in Zanjan at dusk
They loved the setting because it reminded them of the plateau of their Mongol homeland and they came here to hunt. For Sassanian Zoroastrians there were three sacred fires; the royal fire, the warrior fire and the farmer's fire. Takht-i-Suleiman was site of the Warrior's fire. The flame in a fire temple was never allowed to go out and it was customary to light the fire of all new fire temples with the flame from one of the three sacred fires. Contrary to
popular belief, Zoroastrians did not worship fire, rather it was a symbol of purity. The scenery en route to Takht-i-Suleiman was one of denuded hills and harvested fields with little dun-colored villages nestling in the folds at the bottom. Huge mounds of hay were stacked on many roofs for fodder in preparation for the harsh incoming winter. The sky was a perfect blue dome over autumnal shades and shaggy, chocolate-colored sheep nibbled at stubbly stumps of wheat and barley.
Iran is portrayed so one-dimensionally in the mainstream US media that most people probably are unaware that many other religions not only exist but worship freely. North of Tabriz near the town of Jolfa along the border with Armenia, is the 17th century Monastery of St. Stephanos. Secluded among the hills behind the Aras river that forms the border, it has a deeply ridged, pyramidal dome and beautiful engraved crosses on the exterior walls along with some odd-looking angels. (The odd picture is because the rest of the dome is encased in scaffolding for restoration.)
The unusual dome of St. Stephanos Monastery.
In Tehran itself there are denominations of Anglican, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Armenian, Assyrian, Evangelical, Lutheran, and even Assembly of God, as well as several synagogues. In the Iranian parliament Christians and Zoroastrians each have a member to represent them, and although it is impossible to progress far within the military or government if you are not Muslim, you are not otherwise a 'second-class' citizen.
Tabriz has two excellent little museums; the Calligraphy Museum which is housed in a former mosque, has a collection of illuminated Qurans, and a unique door with hundreds of tin 'sun' faces, 'hands of Fatima' and other symbols. (My camera chose this moment to run out of battery power so no illustration.) The 'hand of Fatima' in Iran does not hold exactly the same meaning as it does in North Africa. Here it symbolizes the five 'holy people' according to the Shia; Mohammed, Ali, Fatima and the 2nd and 3rd Imams, Hassan and Hussein. This representation is also sometimes symbolized by five orbs on mosque tops.
An illustrated Quran required the skills of three artisans; writer, illustrator and bookbinder. The Illustrator would decorate the edges according to the text of the Quran.
The second is the Azerbaijan Regional Museum (which refers to the Iranian province, not the next-door country) and is a gem. Although small, it has excellent examples of most of the periods and arts representing the scope of Iranian history. In the basement the famous artist, Ahad Husseini has created several powerful and disturbing sculptures with titles like 'The Ignorance of Man' which portrays a caveman with a club standing next to modern man holding a nuke. Other sculptures titled 'Anxiety', 'Racial Discrimination', Prison' and 'Hunger' are compelling depictions of the shadow side of our modern, so-called 'civilized' world.
It was impossible not to notice massive construction projects throughout the country, and in Tabriz in particular, giant cranes formed part of the rapidly changing skyline. I was told that most of this construction is funded from local private investment. Despite US sanctions Iran looked to be more prosperous than I had seen it, its economic problems notwithstanding. Noam Chomsky has been quoted as saying, “US foreign policy is straight out of the Mafia, defiance cannot be tolerated, “successful defiance" has to be punished, even where it damages business interests”. This view would seem to be amply demonstrated in Iran. In theory virtually all US trade with Iran is banned. In fact there are hundreds of top American brands sold openly in malls, supermarkets and stores all across the country. The goods are trans-shipped through Dubai and Hong Kong to name but two major ports. In fact the sanctions are so spectacularly useless that Omani merchants in the Mussandem peninsula have high-powered speedboats and trawlers that cross the Hormuz straits several times a day – right under the nose of US patrol boats - taking with them everything that can't be imported directly. The only country being negatively impacted by US sanctions is the United States itself. To add insult to injury, it is estimated that lifting sanctions would add a mere 1.4% to Iran's GDP, a bagatelle.
