VI. OTHER REFERENCES TO IRANIAN CULTURE

A. Cosmology and geography. Plato, Themistius, and the Stoics believed that the celestial spheres were composed of fire or of some combination of fire, water, and air, without earth; but Aristotle and certain Persian, Indian, and Chaldean thinkers (ḥokamāʾ) believed that they were composed of a unique fifth element (Tanbih, p. 7). A celestial sphere (falak) was called esbehr in ancient Persian and ḥāydān in modern Persian (Tanbih, pp. 33-34).

On ancient Iranian doctrines of light, darkness, and fire, see II.A. above. Masʿudi refers the reader to a discussion, in works now lost, of the concept of “the five originary (principles)’ (al-ḵamsa al-qodamāʾ): Ormazd “God” (Allāh), Ahreman “the evil satan,” Kāh “time,” Jāy “place,” and Hum, “good thing (to eat or smell) and anything brewed or leavened” (al-ṭayyeba wa’l-ḵamir). Muslim heresiographers falsely accuse the Zoroastrians of believing that God produced evil by his own thoughts (tafakkara fa-ḥadaṯa men fekreheh šarr) and then allowed it to exist, in the form of Satan (Šayṭān), for a predetermined time. Masʿudi suggests that some ordinary believers may hold this view, which has been erroneously attributed to all Zoroastrians. He also reports that his other (now lost) works covered what the Zoroastrians believe regarding “the return of kingship to them and to other ancient nations, the beginning and end of the world, those who believe that it will last forever, and those who believe that it has no beginning or end” (ibid, Tanbih, pp. 93-94; Moruj II, sec. 1437; on the return of kingship, see further Tanbih, pp. 108, 110).

The Persians and Nabateans or Syrians divided the inhabited world into regions. The east was called Khorasan, “place where the sun rises,” derived from ḵor “sun.”  The west was called Ḳorbarān“place where the sun sets.”  The north was called Bāḵtar and the south Nimruz (Tanbih, p. 31). The Greek geographers divided the earth into climes corresponding to the planets, for which Masʿudi gives the Persian names:  Kayvān “Jupiter,” Urmazd “Saturn,” Bahrām “Mars,” Ḵoršād or Āftāb “the sun,” Anāhid “Venus,” Tir “Mercury,” and Māh “the moon.”  In Persian, a clime (eqlim) is called kešvar (Tanbih, pp. 33-34).

The fourth clime is called Bābel, which some Persians and Nabateans believe is derived from Bil or Bail “Saturn” in their ancient language. It is the best of all climes. It includes Irānšahr, the region ruled by the Persian kings, who would spend the summer in the mountains and the winters in Iraq. The name Irānšahr is derived from that of Iraj (see II.A. above) or from ir, which in ancient Persian is “a term that means both goodness and virtue” (esm jāmeʿ le’l-ḵayr wa’l-fażl) and appears also in the word irbaḏ, “leader of good men” (raʾis al-ḵiār), which the Arabs pronounce as herbed (see HĒRBED). According to the Nabateans, the Persians inhabited only Fars, Māhāt, and “other Pahlavi regions” (ḡairehā men belād al-Fahlawiyin); the region was eventually named after them, but its original name was Aryānšahr “land of lions” from aryā “lion” in Aramaic (nabaṭiya), because of their strength and courage (Tanbih, pp. 35-38).

The Sawād (central Iraq) was once divided into 12 estāns or districts (kuras) and sixty subdistricts (ṭassuj). As the Tigris changed course and southern Mesopotamia turned into swampland, this division broke down. The Persians call Iraq and Syria Surestān, “land of the Syrians,” that is, the Chaldeans, who in Arabic are called the Nabaṭ (Tanbih, pp. 40, 176-77).

B. Calendar and festivals. The Persian calendar consists of twelve months of thirty days each. Masʿudi lists the names of the months, which appear to differ only slightly, or not at all, from those used today. Each day of the month also has a name; Masʿudi lists them all. He also cites a poem suggesting that Arabic speakers considered Rām, the twenty-first day of the month, a good day to drink wine (Masʿudi, 1894, Moruj II, secs. 1281, 1298-300; Tanbih, pp. 215). Masʿudi occasionally dates events by the Persian calendar (e.g., Tanbih, pp. 48-49, 401).

The sixteenth day of the seventh month (Mehr) is the festival of Mehragān (Moruj II, sec. 1298). The Persians explain that the festival commemorates the death of an oppressive king called Mehr; the name Mehr jān means “the spirit of Mehr is gone.”  Masʿudi, who appears to accept this folk etymology at face value, cites the phrase as evidence that the Pahlavi language (al-Fahlawiyah, wa hya al-fāresiya al-ula), unlike Arabic, places the subject before the verb. People of standing (ahl al-morowwāt) in Iraq celebrate the holiday by replacing their old furniture and buying new clothes (Moruj II, sec. 1287).

A tutor of the caliph al-Rāżi (r. 322-29/934-40) describes the celebration of Mehrajān along the banks of the Tigris as a day of “uproariousness, music, games, joy, and delight, unlike anything I had ever seen before.” To distract the caliph, who had political worries on his mind, the tutor regaled him with tales of the caliphs and the Persian kings. He eventually persuaded him to drink by citing a poem by the caliph al-Maʾmun in praise of drinking wine on Mehragān (Moruj V, secs. 2502-503).

The eighth month (Ābān) brings the festival of Ābānruz or Ābāngāh. At the end of the month come the five days required to complete the year. Each of these days has a name in Persian and Arabic. Every 120 years, the Persians would intercalate an entire month. They could have achieved the same result by inserting one day every four years, but chose not to because doing so would cause auspicious and inauspicious days to change places, or because the days were named after their angels (malāʾeka) and they did not want to add days that did not belong. When their empire collapsed, the intercalation was neglected, with the result that their festivals began to move around the calendar. In 282/895-86, the caliph al-Mo‘tamed moved Nowruz back two months to June 11, to correct the problem for tax purposes (Moruj II, secs. 1298-301; Tanbih, pp. 215-16).

In Iraq and Fars, the first day of the ninth month (Āḏar) brings festivities intended to ward off the cold. A buffoon (kawsaj) rides out on a mule and eats walnuts, garlic, fatty meats, and other foods and drinks classified as hot. Thus fortified, he submits to having cold water poured over him and professes to feel no discomfort. He cries out garmā garmā “heat, heat” (ḥarr). This is a time of great joy (sorur) and excitement (ṭarab). Similar festivals occur at other times of the year (Moruj II, secs. 1298-99; see also CALENDARS, FESTIVALS).

C. Temples.

1. Astral temples. The world contains seven great temples originally dedicated to one of the heavenly bodies. Four of these temples are associated with Iran:

a. Mārbin, on a mountain near Isfahan, originally a pagan sanctuary but consecrated to fire by Bostāsaf or Yostāsaf. It was still being used in Masʿudi’s time.

b. Nowbahār, built in Balkh byManušahr, originally dedicated to the moon. Its guardians, who were persons of great power, were called Barmaks; the Barmaki family of viziers was descended from one of them. The building was famous for its solid construction. It reportedly bore an inscription in Persian:  “Said Budasf: ‘[Entering] the gates of kings requires self-restraint, patience, and money’” (ʿaql o ṣabr o māl).

c. Kāvusān, in Farḡāna, built by Kāvus in honor of the sun, and destroyed by the caliph al-Moʿtaṣem (r. 218-27/833-42).

d. Ḡomdān, at Ṣanʿāʾ in Yemen, reportedly built by Żaḥḥāk to honor Venus. It was razed by Oṯmān b. ʿAffān (Moruj II, secs. 1370-81, IV, sec. 2618).

2. Pre-Zoroastrian fire temples (boyut al-nirān).

a. One in Ṭus, built by Afridun (see II.C. above).

b. Barazesavaza, in Bukhara, also built by Afridun (see II.C. above).

c. Karkukān, in Sejestān, built by Bahman b. Esfandiār.

d. A temple in “the land of al-Šiz wa’l-Rān.” According to one report it was originally built for idols but appropriated by Anušervān. Another report claims that Anušervān found fire already there.

e. K*ws*ja or K*visah, built by Kay Ḵosrow.

f. J*riš, in Qumes, left unmolested by Alexander.

g. Kanjara, built by Siāvaḵš.

h. A temple in Arrajān built by Bostāsf or Qobāḏ.

i. The Palace of Candles in Fostat (Meṣr al-qadima), built by Lohrāsf, now a mosque.

j. A temple in Fars, built by Lohrāsf (Moruj II, secs. 1400-401).

3. Zoroastrian fire temples. There are fire temples in Iraq, Fars, Kerman, Sejestān, Khorasan, Ṭabarestān, Jebāl, Azarbaijan, Rān, Sind, India, and China. The most famous are:

a. A temple in Nisābur founded by Zoroaster.

b. A temple in Nasā wa’l-Bayżāʾ, also founded by Zoroaster.

c. A temple in Dārābjerd, in Fars, containing a particularly precious flame brought from Ḵ^vārazm (Chorasmia) by Yustasf at the behest of Zoroaster. In Masʿudi’s time the sanctuary was called Āḏorjuy “River Fire.”  It is apparently the same as the temple in Kāriān reportedly founded by Anušervān. When Islam appeared, the Zoroastrians, fearing that the invaders would extinguish the flame, used it to kindle a new one in Nasā wa’l-Bayżāʾ (see VI.C.3.b. above).

d. A temple one parsang from Eṣṭaḵr. Originally a sanctuary for idols, it was dedicated as a fire temple by Ḥomāy, who later removed the fire and let the building fall into ruin. Masʿudi visited the site, seeing there “a great structure, with stone columns topped with unusual stone figures of horses and other animals, of enormous proportions; surrounded by a vast enclosure and a protective wall of stone, on which were skillful depictions of figures.”  The site, which is evidently Persepolis, was called the mosque of Solomon, who is said to have imprisoned the wind there.

e. A temple in Madinat Sābur (Bišāpur), in Fars, built by Dārā b. Dārā.

f. A temple one hour outside Jur (present-dy Firuzābād), a town in Fars famous for its rose water. It was built by Ardašir over a spring. It is a place for excursions and has a festival. The town of itself contains Ṭerbāl, a great building venerated by the Persians but razed by the Muslims. There are many tales about the region, which includes Shiraz, the capital of Fars; these tales have been written down by the Persians (qad dawwanathā al-Fors; Moruj II, secs. 1402-404).

g. Bārnavā, built by Ardašir two days after his accession.

h. A temple built on the Sea of Marmara by the Byzantines at the request of Sābur I.

i. A temple in Astiniyā, near Baghdad, built by Burān, the daughter of Abarviz (Moruj II, secs. 1402-406, 1412).

D. Reliefs and paintings. Masʿudi was impressed by the reliefs at Persepolis (Moruj II, sec. 1403; see VI. B.3.d., above), and by the representations of the heavens, the earth, plants, animals, and the like left by the Ašḡāniyun (Parthians) in their summer residences in Azarbaijan (Tanbih, p. 95; see II.B. above).

In Eṣṭaḵr, he was shown a book (see I.B.5. above) containing the history of the Sasanian dynasty containing vividly colored portraits of the dynasty’s twenty-five emperors and two empresses. Each had been painted on the day the sovereign died and stored in the treasury “so the living would not forget the image of the dead.”  Ardaṣir I was depicted “standing with a spear in his hand, dressed in a red tabby (modannar) mantle, sky-blue trousers, and a green and gold crown.”  Yazdajerd III was depicted “in a figured green mantle, figured sky-blue trousers, and a crimson crown, holding a lance and leaning on a sword.”  The colors used in the paintings included solutions of gold, silver, and copper, all of a kind no longer extant in Masʿudi’s time. The sheets were of a violet (ferfiri) hue, and so expertly crafted that he could not tell if they were paper or parchment (Tanbih, pp. 106-7).

E. Literature. Masʿudi mentions tales about the Isfahan region put into writing by the Persians (Moruj II, secs. 1402-404) and Persian poems about Zaranrud (Zāyandarud), the river of Isfahan (Tanbih, p. 74). He also provides evidence for the written and oral transmission of Persian historical narratives in Arabic. He reports that the caliph al-Hešām (r. 105-25/724-43) had a work of Sasanian history translated for him into Arabic (Tanbih, pp. 106-7; see also above, I.B.5. and below, VI.D.). The caliph al-Marwān II (r. 127-32/744-50) was an avid reader of royal biographies from the Persian and other traditions (Moruj IV, sec. 2288). The boon companion Abu Bakr Hoḏali described Anušervān’s campaigns in the east for the caliph al-Saffāḥ (Moruj IV, sec. 2335).

In addition to religious and historical works (see I.A., B., and C. above), Masʿudi knew of tales and fables translated from Persian and other languages. In a discussion of the history of Damascus, he compares the legends invented by storytellers to “the stories transmitted to us, or translated, from Persian, Sanskrit, and Byzantine Greek.” These include Hazār afsāna, which means “A thousand tales” (alf ḵorāfa), also known as “A thousand and one nights” (Alf layla wa layla) which is the story of “the king, the vizier, his daughter, and her maidservant, these last being Širāzād and Dināzād.”  There are also Ketāb Farza wa Simās (The Book of Farza and Simas), which contains tales about the kings and viziers of India; Ketāb al-Sendbād; and “other books of this kind” (Moruj II, secs. 1415-16).

F. Music. In a discussion of music held at the behest of the caliph al-Moʿtamed (r. 256-79/870-92), Ebn Khorradāḏbeh declared that the Persians were the first to pair the nāy (a rim-blown flute or a double-reed woodwind) with the lute (ʿud); the zonāmi (a reed-pipe of uncertain type) with the pandore (ṭonbur); the shawm (sornāi) with the drum (ṭabl); and the mostaj (the Chinese sheng, a mouth-blown free reed instrument) with the harp (ṣanj). The people of Fars accompanied song (ḡenāʾ) with lutes (ʿidān) and harps (or cymbals, ṣonuj), which they invented (wa hia lahom). The people of Ray, Ṭabarestān, and Daylam also favored the pandore, while the people of Khorasan and the surrounding regions sang to the accompaniment of the wanaj or zanaj, a seven-stringed lyre. Iranian kings (moluk al-aʿājem) insisted on being sung to sleep (3213-5; 130 = Moruj V, secs. 3213-15, 3222).

Persian music has distinctive nagham (melodies?), iqā‘āt (rhythms), maqaṭeʿ (sections?), and ṭoruq moloukiya (royal modes?). Masʿudi’s report, which has clearly been garbled in transmission, here diverges from the account that Ebn Khorradāḏbeh himself gives in al-Lahw wa al-malāhi, where eight modes are listed; Masʿudi’s report says there are seven modes but lists only six. Morever, the names of the modes do not coincide. Those given by Masʿudi alone are s*kāf; ’*m*r*s*h; dārus*nān; sāy*kād, sāy*kāh, or sāb*kād; šis*m; and jub*ʿ*rān, ḥub*rān, or juyʿrān (Moruj V, sec. 3214). A more complete recension of Ebn Khorradāḏbeh’s brief comments on each mode except for the first may be found in the published edition of his al-Lahw wa al-malāhi (Ebn Khorradāḏbeh, pp. 15-19). His further remarks on musicianship, audition, rhythm, melody, and related technical matters (Moruj V, secs. 3223-26) mention a style called māḵuri, the ‘bordello’ style, associated with Ebrāhim b. Maymun Mawṣeli, identified as a Persian (men abnāʾ Fāres).

G. Food and drink. A well-known wit named Šorāʿa b. Zandabuḏ advised the caliph al-Walid II (r. 125-26/743-44) to drink wine made of grapes rather than dates or raisins. On one occasion, al-Walid II exclaimed la-aṣṭabeḥanna haft hafta, a mix of Arabic and Persian meaning ‘I will drink every morning for seven weeks’ (Moruj IV, secs. 2240, 2247).

A courtier advised the caliph al-Wāṯeq (r. 227-32/842-47) to eat ḵošknānj mosayyar, perhaps a snack prepared from dry bread, as an accompaniment to wine (Moruj IV, sec.2854).

The caliph al-Mostakfi (r. 333-34/944-46) once asked his companions to recite poems describing various dishes. Among the items described are several with Persian names or otherwise associated with Iran. These include:

1. bāḏenjān Burān: “Buran’s eggplant,” a dish named after the wife of the caliph al-Maʾmun (Firuzābādi, s.v. bur).

2. dastija: unknown; described only as being cooked.

3. harisa, which according to the anonymous poet was a Sasanian invention and a particular favorite of Anušervān. It contains poultry, lamb, sheep’s tail, white wheat [?], bitter vetch, almonds, and galingale.

4. jardaqa: a loaf of bread; used in the preparation of wasaṭ or wasṭ (see below).

5. juḏābā:  a dish of rice, saffron, sugar, and meat or fat. Poets describe it as yellow, reddish, or orange in color, and as jiggling or forming circles when blown on (because it is gelatinous). A version made with chicken is used in wasaṭ or wasṭ (see below).

6. lowzinaj or lowzinaja (also described in verse in Moruj V, sec. 3389):  a sweet containing almonds, sugar, and syrup.

7. marzanjuš: marjoram, used as the basis of a condiment (kāmeḵ).

8. saljam: turnips, eaten pickled.

9. sanbusaj, for which Esḥāq b. Ebrāhim Mawṣeli gives a recipe in verse. A mixture of meat, onions, cabbage, rue, cinnamon, coriander, cloves, ginger, pepper, cumin, salt, and morri (a fermented condiment) is pounded together, boiled until dry, wrapped in a thin flat loaf, fried, and served with spicy mustard.

10. sakārej:  plates, in this case for serving condiments (kawāmeḵ).

11. ṭayhuj:  see-see (a bird of the pheasant family), eaten fried or stewed.

12. wasaṭ or wasṭ, for which Ebn al-Rumi (d. 283/896?) gives a hard-to-follow recipe in verse, involving two loaves (jardaqa) of semolina bread, portions of two chicken juḏābas (see above), almonds, walnuts, cheese, olives, mint, tarragon, boiled eggs, and salt (Moruj V, secs. 3553-66).

H. Games. Ardašir was reportedly the first to play backgammon (nard). He set the number of points (boyut) at twelve, corresponding to the months, and the number of checkers (kelāb) at 30, corresponding to the days in each month. The dice symbolize the arbitrary character of prosperity and the abrupt reversal of fortune. Masʿudi notes that although different styles of play have developed, the number of points has remained constant. He adds that although the action of the dice is arbitrary, there is nevertheless room for skill and strategy. He cites three Arabic poems about backgammon and cites a claim that chess must have been invented by a believer in free will and backgammon by a determinist (Moruj I, sec. 161, V, secs. 3477-81).