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Bb Shahrbn and the Lady of Prs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Mary Boyce
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Extract

Interest in the Zoroastran religion is widespread among scholars, and knowledge of Zoroastrian practice has been diligently acquired. The main source of information has, however, been the Indian branch of the community; and a number of evidently ancient customs observed in the Persian homeland have passed almost, and sometimes indeed entirely, unnoticed in the West.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , February 1967 , pp. 30 - 44
Copyright
Copyright School of Oriental and African Studies 1967

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References

1 The information on which this article is based was gained during a year's study leave from the School of Oriental and African Studies, 19634. During most of this time I was the guest of Mr. Rustam Nshirvn Belvn, the very able head of the Zoroastrians of the village of Sharfbd-i Ardekn, Yazd, to whom I am deeply indebted for hospitality, friendship, and help in countless ways. With Mr. Belvn and members of his family I went to all the major shrines mentioned here, as well as to most of the lesser village shrines.

2 See Goldziher, I., Muhammedanische Studien, I,229 ff.Google Scholar

3 I owe this explanation of the dedication to Mr. Belvn, and it was subsequently confirmed by Dastur Khoddd Nrysang, the priest of Sharfbd. The more ignorant villagers have by now lost sight of the true Zoroastrian dedication behind the protective Muslim one. On Khwja Khedr and Elath see Encyclopaedia of Islam, first ed., articles by A. J. Wensinck and M. Longworth-Dames on and Ilys.

4 As for example in the hill-side shrine to Khwja Khedr near the city of Kermnshh.

5 Details of the tradition for each individual shrine are recorded by Jamshid Sorush Sorushian in his invaluable book, the Farhang-e Behdinan, ed. Sotoodeh, Manoochehr, Tehran, 1956, 204 ff. (where material is also given for the chief shrines of Kermn).Google Scholar

6 A detailed account of this legend of Bn-Prs is given by Murzban, M. M. in his enlarged edition of Menant's, D.Les Parsis, entitled The Parsis in India, Bombay, 1917, I, 1367.Google Scholar

7 See his cery.i rsan dar dony-yi trk, Tehran, 13331954, chapter entitled Bahs dar bre-yi Shahrbn. I am much indebted to Professor Mojtaba Minovi both for referring me to this work and for securing for me, through the kindness of the author, an offprint of the relevant chapter.Google Scholar

8 Tabaqt, Leyden, 1904, V, 156.Google Scholar

9 al-Ma'rif, Cairo, 1935, 94.Google Scholar

10 Ed. Houtsma, , II, 293;Google Scholar see Browne, E. G., Literary history of Persia, I, 131.Google Scholar

11 Ed. Ritter, , Istanbul, 1931, 48.Google Scholar

12 Ed. 'l-Dn Tehrn, Sayyid Jellu, Tehran, 1313 1934, 195, 196.Google Scholar

13 ibid., 197.

14 'Uymacr;n akhbr al-Riḍ, Tehran, 12751858, 309. This valuable reference is given by Shahd, who also provides a Persian translation, according to which, however, 'Al was popularly accused of himself marrying his own mother. I owe the translation given above to the kindness of my colleague Dr. W. N. 'Arafat, who reads the three occurrences of the word as zawwaja he gave in marriage, instead of zuwwija he was married to. This is plainly the correct reading in the light of the Sunni tradition.Google Scholar

15 al-Kf, Tehran, 13811962, I, 466.Google Scholar

16 See Virolleaud, C.Le thdtre persan, Paris, 1950, 7 f. (with bibliographical references).Google Scholar

17 In the monthly journal Ittil't, II, 9, month Azar 13281949 (ref. apud Shahd; the journal itself is not available in London).

18 In an article in the Majalle-yi Bstn-shins, spring 13381959, 133. (This article contains at the end some interesting material about old customs observed in the Prz mountains near Kermn.)Google Scholar

19 Khtn-i Haft Qal'eh, Tehran, 13441965, 271. In May 1965 I gave a lecture at the Royal Asiatic Society in London seeking to establish the connexion, before this publication reached me.Google Scholar

20 According to Firdausi, Shhname, 12e, 909, Gw gave his sister Shahrbn Iram in marriage to Rustam (on Gw as a Parthian king see Nldeke, Das iranische Nationalepos, second ed., 7); and in the Parthian romance of Via u Rmn (see Minorsky, , BSOAS, XII, 4, 1946, 741 ff., XII, 1, 1947, 20 ff., XVI, 1, 1954, 912),Google Scholar the royal mother of Vs, Shahr, is called Shahrbn, and also Mh-duxt princess of Media and Mh bnuvn the Moon of Ladies (see Minorsky, , BSOAS, XI, 4, 755Google Scholar). This lady claimed descent from the mythical king Jamshd, and took precedence over the shah's wife and her own husband (Minorsky, , BSOAS, XII, 1, 30).Google Scholar

21 See Herzfeld, , Paikuli, p. 217,Google Scholar No. 636; Henning, , Sogdica, 1718.Google Scholar

22 KZ, Kartir, 1. 8 (Sprengling, Third-century Iran, 47; Chaumont, M. L., JA, CCXLVIII, 3, 1960, 343): 'nxyt ZY MRT.Google Scholar

23 Paikuli (Pahlavi), I. 10 (Herzfeld, 98): 'nxyt ZY MRT sM.

24 Horn-Steindorff, Sassanidische Siegelsteine, plate VI, No. 1621, inscribed b'nwicy; see Henning, , BSOAS, XII, 34, 1948, p. 603, n. 1.Google Scholar

25 Y 68.13, ardv sr bn (see Darmesteter, , Zend-Avesta, I, 419 with n. 25).Google Scholar

26 Saddar Bundehesh, ch. 44, 25, in Saddar Nasr and Saddar Bundehesh, ed. Dhabhar, B. N., Bombay, 1909, 116Google Scholar (transl. by Dhabhar, in The Persian Rivayat of Hormazyar Framarz, Bombay, 1932, 537:Google Scholar

27 Dira Hormazyr's Rivyat, ed. Unvala, M. R., Bombay, 1922, I, 93 (transl. Dhabhar, op. cit., 96, and cf. 304):Saddar Bundehesh, ch. 46, 3 (Dhabhar, ed. 118, transl. 538):Google Scholar

28 ibid., ch. 78, 11 (Dhabhar, ed. 149, transl. 559):

29 A detailed description of this spring, and of the shrine itself, has been published by Sayyid Muḥammad Taqi Muṣtafav in the monthly journal Ittil't, V, 2, 13311952, 15 ff. (quoted in full by Shahd).Google Scholar

30 See Browne, E. G., Literary history of Persia, I, 131.Google Scholar

31 For a detailed archaeological description of the sanctuary see Muṣṭafav, loc. cit., and also in Guzirishh-yi Bstn-shins, III (Tehran), 13341955, 254305.Google Scholar The celebrated set of medieval silks excavated in 1925 at Bb Shahrbn (Pope, , Survey of Persian art, III, 1998Google Scholar) was in fact discovered in a group of tombs some 2 km. to the south-west of the sanctuary; see Wiet, Gaston, Soieries persanes, in Mmoires prsents l'Institut d'gypte, LII, 1947, 9.Google Scholar

32 This inscription is reproduced by Muṣṭafav in the works cited above.

33 The title Shh-i Zann is recorded by ṭabar as an honorific for the Sasanian queen Brn, who ruled in her own right, A.D. 6301; see Nldeke, ṭabar, p. 399, n.

34 Drb Hormazyr's Rivyat, II, 452, transl., 614.Google Scholar

35 See Sorushian, Farhang-e Behdinan, 201, s.v.

36 See above, p. 37, nn. 2628.

37 Drb Hormazyr's Rivyat, II p. 159, 1. 3: Dhabhar, transl., 593.Google Scholar

38 Hataria's reports to the Parsi community were written in Gujarati, but use has been made of them by Parsis writing in English. I am much indebted to Ervad Dr. P. K. Anklesaria for giving me a copy of an English translation he has had made of Hataria's account of his early years of work, published as Ezhre yte Irn, Bombay, A.Y. 1234A.D. 1865.Google Scholar

39 See Hataria, op. cit., ch. xiv; and Murzban, , The Parsis in India, I, 136.Google Scholar

40 Once the legends of ShahrbnKhtn Bann were evolved for the two great shrines, they seem to have inspired through euhemerism a number of imitative legends at scattered lesser shrines, probably also dedicated to Anhd. Thus, e.g., Rawlinson, H., J. Royal Geographical Soc. of London, IX, 1839, 323,Google Scholar describes a deep gorge near the stronghold of Sasanian Holwn, through which flows a stream of the only sweet drinking water over a wide area. Low down this gorge there is a natural double cave in the rock, very difficult of access, which is called the Haramkhnah of Shahr-bn, the daughter of Yazdijird, who afterwards became the wife of the Imm Hasan sic; it is a curious place, and looks like the grotto of a hermit. In the Harm district of Frs, not so very far from Yazd, Edward Strack came across a naive legend which is a rough inversion of the Zoroastrian one; see his Six months in Persia, I, London, 1882, 119. According to this, at the time of the Arab invasions, a certain Zoroastrian, Shh Kran, was besieged at Karyun by 12,000 Arabs; and sallying out of the fort while they were at their prayers (which they would not leave), he slew them all. There were 40 virgins in the camp, who prayed to Allah for deliverance from him. The earth duly opened and swallowed 37 of them. The remaining three fled, pursued by him and his men. One turned to the mountains to the north and was nearly captured, when a cave opened in the mountain-side and she ran in and disappeared. The cave is called The Ghar Bibi, or Lady's Cave, to this day, and is well known to have no end. Another of the maidens also disappeared into the mountain-side and water has trickled from the cleft ever since. The third is said to have died of exhaustion on the mountains to the south. Her shrine, called that of the Bibi darmnda, or Tired-out Lady, is a famous place of prayer for childless wives. Strack also records (op. cit., 2278) that at one place in the Zarand district, between Kerman and Bafk a solitary hill breaks the evenness of the plain. It is about 400 feet high, and has a shrine at the top, sacred to one Hayat Bibi, or Lady of Life, of whose history I was not able to discover anything.Google Scholar

41 It is very probable that some of these shrines were simply places where worshippers went up to sacrifice to hrmazd and all the gods, and that no one deity had ever been associated with them.

42 See op. cit., ch. xiv. Sykes, P. M., Ten thousand miles in Persia, London, 1902, 156, corroborates Hataria's statement in a brief account based on what he heard in Aghd. He says that Zoroastrians paid for the cows, but that Muslims killed them and ate the flesh. This statement, based on Muslim reports some years after the custom had ceased (Hataria died in 1890), must in part be discounted, however. No Zoroastrian would conceivably offer a sacrifice by the hand of an unbeliever. Muslim beggars and poor people fairly regularly present themselves, however, at Zoroastrian religious occasions for a dole of food. I questioned a number of the older people of Sharifbd (which is near Bn-Prs) about the cow sacrifice. The fact of this sacrifice is well known; and more than one person said that the cows had been killed in the usual way (that is, by the sacrificing priest). This fits with Hataria's remark (loc. cit.) that the mobeds helped in this work. As for the flesh, the Sharifbds thought, but rather vaguely, that this had been disposed of also in the usual fashion, that is, part of it eaten by those who made the offering, part distributed in charity. Nearly 100 years have elapsed, however, since the custom ceased; and Hataria's evidence is perhaps to be preferred, as that of a good contemporary witness. The possibility cannot, however, be excluded that the Yazds, who were deeply grateful to him, sought to mitigate the wrongness of the sacrifice in his eyes by giving away wholly in charity what had previously been consumed in part at least by members of the community themselves. It should perhaps be stressed that the general term cow (gv) includes bull. Male or female animals were sacrificed, as circumstances dictated.Google Scholar

43 Plutarch, , Lucullus, 24.Google Scholar

44 See Waag, A., Nrangistn, Leipzig, 1941, ch. lxx-lxxi, p. 81. According to the Pahlavi text syist-n-syist, xi, 4 (ed. Davar, p. 59; transl. West, SBE, V, 336) the goddess partakes also of the commoner sacrifice of a gspand, receiving the rght shoulder.Google Scholar

45 See JRAS, 1966, 34, p. 110 with n. 3. Some blood-sacrifices were still made by Parsis down to the present century, see ibid., pp. 1056; and it is noteworthy that it was only the sacrifice of a cow which shocked Hataria. He made no attempt to end the much more general offerings of sheep, goats, and hens.

46 Histories, I, 131: It is not their custom to make and set up statues and temples and altarsbutthey offer sacrifices on the highest peaks of the mountains. The sacred rocks of the Yazd shrines are undressed, irregular, natural stone. They are not, it is true, at the very highest peaks, but to ascend these in Iran one would need to be a trained mountaineer, unencumbered by sacrificial offerings. There is likewise, N.B., no trace of a pre-Islamic building at the shrine of Bb Shahrbn; see above, pp. 378.

47 At Hrist, Nrak, and Narestn the tiny old cells have been incorporated, with minor modifications, in the new buildings. The shrine of Pr-i Sabz has not been much enlarged because of its position, clinging like a beehive to the mountain-face. At Bn-Prs the old cell has been swept away entirely; but the building and its dimensions were fully described to me by those who remembered it.

48 Although the Yazd Zoroastrians, rich and poor alike, still invariably speak among themselves in their own language, commonly called Gabr, I never heard them sing even work-songs in anything but standard Persian. Sorushian (op. cit., 203) gives, however, some bayt in Kermn Gabr. In Kermn, Gabr is now used only by some of the older people among themselves, and is not even understood by the rest. The only times I heard Zoroastrians speaking Persian among themselves in Yazd were when there was a Kermn in their company.