Ayadgar-i Zariran

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Ayādgār ī Zarērān (and other approximationscf. 

heroic poem that, in its surviving manuscript form, represents one of the earliest surviving examples of Iranian epic poetry
.

The poem of about 346 lines is a tale of the death in battle of the mythical hero Zarēr (<

Gāthās,[3] which are a set of autobiographical hymns in the Avesta that are attributed to the prophet Zoroaster
.

Composition

Historically, Iranian epic poems such as this one were composed and sung by travelling minstrels, who in pre-Islamic times were a fixture of Iranian society.

Zoroastrian Middle Persian (so-called "Pahlavi", an exclusively written late form of Middle Persian used only by Zoroastrian priests), and it is the only surviving specimen of Iranian epic poetry in that Middle Iranian language.[3]

The surviving manuscripts of the Memorial of Zarēr are part of (copies of) the MK Codex, the colophones of which date to 1322, but—like most other "Pahlavi" literature — represents a codification of earlier oral tradition. The language of the poem is significantly older than the 14th century, and even has Parthian language words, phrases and grammatical usages scattered through it.[4] The manuscript came to the attention of western scholarship following Wilhelm Geiger's report of the MK collection and the translation of the text in question in 1890.

Arsacid-era) Parthian original.[3][2]

Story

The story of Memorial of Zarēr plays in the time of the mythological

Un-Iranian Xyonites (< Av. x́yaona-), Arjāsp ( Middle Persian Arzāsp < Avestan Arəjaṱ.aspa), who demands that Wištāsp "abandon 'the pure Mazdā-worshipping religion which he had received from Ohrmazd', and should become once more 'of the same religion'" as himself.[1]
Arjāsp threatens Wištāsp with a brutal battle if Wištāsp does not consent.

Zarēr, who is Wištāsp's brother and the command-in-chief of Wištāsp's army, pens a reply in which Arjāsp's demands are rejected and a site for battle is selected. In preparation for battle, the army of the Iranians grows so large that the "noise of the caravan of the country of Iran went up to heavens and their clamors went down to hell." Wištāsp's chief-minister, Jāmāsp (< Av. Jāmāspa), whom the poem praises as infinitely wise and able to foretell the future, predicts that the Iranians will win the battle, but also that many will die in it, including many of Wištāsp's clan/family. As predicted, many of the king's clansmen are killed in the fight, among them Wištāsp's brother Zarēr, who is slain by Wīdrafsh / Bīdrafsh, the sorcerer (the epithet is jādūg, implying a practitioner of wicked magic) of Arjāsp's court.

Zarēr's 7-year-old son, Bastwar / Bastūr (< Av. Basta.vairi) goes to the battlefield to recover his father's body. Enraged and grieving, Bastwar vows to take revenge. Although initially forbidden to engage in battle due to his youth, Bastwar engages with the Xyonites, killing many of them, and revenging his father by shooting an arrow through Wīdrafsh's heart.

Spendyād
(< Av. Spǝṇtōδāta) has captured Arjāsp, who is then mutilated and humiliated by being sent away on a donkey without a tail.

Legacy

Although quintessentially Zoroastrian (i.e. indigenous ethnic Iranian religious tradition), the epic compositions of the traveling minstrels continued to be retold (and further developed) even in Islamic Iran, and the figures/events of these stories were just as well known to Muslim Iranians as they had been to their Zoroastrian ancestors. The 5th/6th-century Book of Kings, now lost, and partly perhaps a still living oral tradition in north-eastern Iran,

Abū-Manṣūr Daqīqī. In turn, Daqīqī's poem was incorporated by Ferdowsi in his Šāhnāma.[3] In 2009, these adaptations of Memorial of Zarēr became the basis of the stage play Yādgār-i Zarirān written by Qoṭb ed-Din Ṣādeqi, and played by Mostafa Abdollahi, Kazem Hozhir-Azad, Esmayil Bakhtiyari and others.[8]

Notes

References

  1. ^ a b c d Anklesaria, Behramgore Tahmuras (1918), "Introduction to the Ayîbâtkâr-î Zarîrân", The Pahlavi Texts of the MK Codex, Pahlavi Texts, vol. II, translated by Jamasp-Asana, Jamaspji Minocheherji, Bombay: K. J. Jamasp-Asana, pp. 14–16
  2. ^ a b Utas, Bo (1975), "On the Composition of the Ayyātkār ī Zarēran", Acta Iranica 5, Monumentum H.S. Nyberg II), Tehran/Liège: Brill, pp. 399–418
  3. ^ a b c d e f Boyce, Mary (1987), "Ayādgār ī Zarērān", Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 3, New York: Routledge, pp. 128–129
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-521-24693-8
  5. S2CID 161761104
  6. ^ Das Yātkār-i Zarirān und sein Verhältnis zum Šāh-nāme [The Yātkār-i Zarirān and its Relation to the Šāhnāme] (in German). Translated by Geiger, Wilhelm. München: Druck der Akademischen Buchdrukerei von F. Straub. 1890.
  7. ^ Benveniste, Emilé (1932), "Le mémorial de Zarēr, poème pehlevi mazdéen", Journal Asiatique: 245–293
  8. ^ Jam-i Jam Online News, "Yadgar-i Zariran comes to the Scene" in Persian, accessed March, 2009 Archived 2011-05-23 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

  • "Aiyâdgâr-i-Zârîrân", Aiyâdgâr-i-Zârîrân, Shatrôîthâ-i-Airân, and Afdiya va Sakigiya-i-Sistân, translated by Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji, Bombay, 1899{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link),
    repr. as Horne, Charles Francis, ed. (1917), "Yatkar-i-Zariran", The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, vol. VII, translated by Modi, Jivanji Jamshedji, New York: Parke, Austin & Lipscomb, pp. 212–224.
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