ايرانيان سی ام آذر ماه با جشنی شبانه با آخرين روز پاييز وداع می گويند ؛ جشنی که از آن به عنوان جشن شب چله يا شب يلدا نام برده می شود.

شب چله برای ايرانيان شب تولد ميترا خداوندگار روشنايی است. آنها طولانی ترين شب سال را با گفت و شنود و خوردن آجيل و ميوه های سرخ فام به اميد پيروزی روشنی بر تاريکی سپری می کنند.

گفته می شود مراسم شب چله يا تولد ميترا که از آئين ميترائيسم برجای مانده، در زمان جنگ ايرانيان با يونانيان به آن کشور رفت و از آن طريق به روم رسيد و از آن پس اروپائيان آن را به عنوان شب تولد عيسی مسيح قرار دادند

SHAB-E YALDA

Another account of “Shab-e Yalda”, “Night of Birth” as the The Eve of the Birth of Mithra, the Sun God

‘Shab-e Yalda’, celebrated on 21 December, has great significance in the Iranian calendar. It is the eve of the birth of Mithra, the Sun God, who symbolised light, goodness and strength on earth. Shab-e Yalda is a time of joy.

Yalda is a Syriac word meaning birth. Mithra-worshippers used the term ‘yalda’ specifically with reference to the birth of Mithra. As the longest night of the year, the Eve of Yalda (Shab-e Yalda) is also a turning point, after which the days grow longer. In ancient times it symbolised the triumph of the Sun God over the powers of darkness.

Over the centuries Mithraism spread to Greece and Ancient Rome via Asia Minor, gaining popularity within the ranks of the Roman army. In the 4th century AD as a result of errors made in calculating leap years and dates, the birthday of Mithra was transferred to 25 December. Until then Christ’s birthday had been celebrated on 6 January by all branches of the Christian Church. But with the cult of Mithra still popular in Roman Europe, the Christian Church adopted many of the Mithraic rituals and proclaimed 25 December as the official birthday of Christ. Today the Armenian and Eastern Orthodox Churches continue to celebrate 6 January as Christ’s birthday.

“It was said that Mithra was born out of the light that came from within the Alborz mountains.”

Beyond the gate of time lies a civilization with seven thousand years of celebrated heritage.
A cradle of civilization a tolerant world empire a crossroad of civilizations a world of artistic forms and shapes a kaleidoscope of architectural marvels recreated for the first time

Farzin Rezaeian is an award-winning documentarian and educational film producer and director. He studied sociology, political science and communications at the University of Illinois in Chicago. For the past twenty years he has researched and written for many educational and documentary films that he has produced or directed. Persepolis Recreated and Seven Faces of a Civilization are his most recent productions.

رضا مرادی غیاث آبادی

نسخه‌های پی‌دی‌اف سالنمای سال آینده ایرانی همراه با راهنمای زمان جشن‌ها و گردهمایی‌های ملی ایران باستان در دو گونه هفتگی و ماهانه منتشر شده است. این سالنما را می‌توانید از اینجا دریافت کنید:

سالنمای سال 1388 ایرانی، هر هفته در یک صفحه، 250 کیلوبایت

سالنمای سال 1388 ایرانی، هر مـــاه در یک صفحه، 160 کیلو بایت

نسخه‌های چاپی این سالنما در آبان‌ماه منتشر خواهند شد. در نسخه‌های چاپی- مطابق دستورالعمل‌ها- مناسبت‌های مصوب مورد نیاز دستگاه‌های دولتی نیز افزوده خواهد شد که در نسخه وب، تنها به شماری از مناسبت‌های سالانه که وابسته به تعطیلات رسمی بوده  و مورد نیاز همگانی هستند، اکتفا شده است.

انتشار زودهنگام تقویم 1388 از جمله به منظور پیشگیری از اختلال دوباره در وب‌سایت پژوهش‌های ایرانی بوده است. چرا که به گزارش نرم‌افزار آمارگیر، سالنمای 1387 در حدود 20.000 بار بارگیری شد و این جدای از بارگیری‌های بسیار بیشتری بوده که از طریق ده‌ها وب‌سایت دیگر انجام شد.

به راهنمای زمان جشن‌های سالنمای 1388 چهار مناسبت جدید افزوده شده است:

1- روز آغاز پادشاهی داراب (کورش) در چهارم بهمن‌ماه به گزارش شاهنامه فردوسی.

2- زادروز زرتشت در آخرین روز سال به گزارش متن پهلوی «گزیده‌های زادسپرم».

3- جشن پرشکوه «اوشیدَر» (نجات‌بخش ایرانی) در دریاچه هامون سیستان/ زابلستان و کوه خواجه (میانگاه جهان باستان).

مناسبت‌های یکم و دوم که منابع مکتوب و کهن ایرانی از آنها پشتیبانی می‌کنند، امروزه بکلی فراموش شده‌اند. اما به نظر می‌رسد که جشن اوشیدر در دریاچه هامون، بازماندی از باورهای در پیوند با زرتشت باشد. چرا که هم زمان برگزاری جشن با زادروز زرتشت اینهمانی دارد، و هم نام «اوشیدر» که دلالت بر سوشیانت‌هایی می‌کند که از تبار زرتشت دانسته شده‌اند. (لازم به یادآوریست که زرتشت و باورهای مردمی در پیوند با او ارتباطی با دین زرتشتی ندارد).

4- چهارمین مناسبت عبارت است از فرخنده روز هزارمین سالگرد پایان سرایش شاهنامه فردوسی در بیست و پنجم اسفندماه 1388:

ســرآمــد کـنـون قـصـهٔ یــزدگــرد       بـه مـاه ســفــنــدارمـذ روز اِرد

ز هـجـرت شـده پـنـج هـشـتـاد بـار      بـه نــام جـهــان داور کــردگــار

بیت‌های پایانی شاهنامه فردوسی

از آنجا که سال 400 قمری از 9 شهریور 388 خورشیدی آغاز شده و در 28 مرداد سال 389 خورشیدی به پایان رسیده است؛ روز «اِرد» یا 25 اسفند در این دامنه زمانی، مطابق با سال 388 خورشیدی می‌شود. به دیگر سخن، 25 اسفند سال 388 هجری خورشیدی برابر است با آدینه‌روز، 21 رجب سال 400 هجری قمری (1± روز). به این ترتیب، در بیست و پنجم اسفندماه سال 1388، هزار سال تمام خورشیدی از زمان پایان سرایش شاهنامه می‌گذرد.

در چنین تبدیل‌هایی، آگاهی از روز آغاز و پایان سال یک گاهشماری در گاهشماری دیگر اهمیت فراوانی دارد. برای مثال اگر فردوسی زمان پایان سرایش شاهنامه را بجای 25 اسفند، 25 مرداد در سال 400 قمری ثبت کرده بود؛ این زمان برخلاف انتظار، نه با سال 388 خورشیدی که با سال 389 خورشیدی برابر می‌شد. این مثال از اینرو آورده شد که نشان داده شود تبدیل تقویم‌ها از ظرافت و پیچیدگی‌های فراوانی برخوردار است که گاهی به آن توجهی نمی‌شود.   

برای تبدیل سال هجری قمری به سال هجری خورشیدی از این فرمول ساده می‌توان بهره برد. دقت نتیجه به دلیل دخالت ندادن روز و ماه 1±  سال است:

[(365.2422÷10.875× سال قمری) ــ سال قمری = سال خورشیدی]

با اینکه عموم پژوهشگران در مبدأ «هجری قمری» سال 400 اتفاق نظر دارند، اما نگارنده احتمال ضعیف مبدأ «هجری خورشیدی» برای سال 400 را قابل تأمل و بررسی می‌داند. دستکم لازم است که نادرستی این احتمال به اثبات برسد.

تکثیر این سالنما در محیط وب، بدون هیچگونه تغییر در متن آن برای همگان آزاد است.

Owner John Webber says his grandfather gave him the 5.5-inch (14-centimetre) high mug to play with when he was a child, back in 1945.

He assumed the golden cup, which is decorated with the heads of two women facing in opposite directions, their foreheads garlanded with two knotted snakes, was made from brass.

But he decided to get it valued when he was moving house last year and was told it was actually a rare piece of ancient Persian treasure, beaten out of a single sheet of gold hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

Read more… 

The first thing you will notice is that French was the main foreign language in Iran under Reza Shah Pahlavi. English replaced French a few decades later as the British Empire increased it’s activities inside Persia. According to these pictures, Mr. Shoraka was born on 1282 AP, which was during the reign of Mozafaredin Shah of Qajar. Another interesting fact mentioned is that Mr. Shoraka has a shaved beard and a unibrow. The last item in the first page is religion. However they have marked it out and replaced it with “Nationality: Iranian.”

The photos are copyrighted under Creative Commons to rshoraka.

The  movie has also received positive reviews in the New York Times newspaper:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/movies/06mong.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Here is more information about the movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416044/

Note the following excerpt of the movie:

the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader.

Genghis Khan was certainly fearless and inspiring to his troops, but the term “visionary” is more difficult to fathom. In strictly military terms, Genghis Khan was indeed “visionary”, as well as in his ability to unite the Mongol tribes. Chinese, Iranian, Japanese, European, Islamic, etc. references are near-unanimous in reporting the Mongols as ruthless, barbaric, destructive and without mercy towards combatants and non-combatants alike. References often cite the Mongols and Genghis Khan as prone to killing, rape, pillaging and destruction. Their main motto before every invasion was “submit or die”. 

This raises the question of how Genghis Khan would be “visionary” in domains such as human rights, mercy, city-building or learning? Historical events portray a very different “vision” indeed. The teeming city of Neishabur (Nev-Shapur) with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants was simply razed to the ground by the Mongol invaders. Note a Japanese artistic portrayal that shows a Mongol invader tormenting the elderly, women and children in Japan:

Japanese tradition and historiography portrays the Mongols as not only ruthless but cruel and merciless towards civilians, namely the elderly, women and children. Similar descriptions are available from other nations that fell under the Mongol conquests

(Photo: The Nicheren Memorial statue at Hakata, as displayed in p.67 of Stephen Turnbull’s “Genghis Khan and the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400”, 2003).

The first attempt at re-writing the history of Genghis Khan was done by Leon Cahun, a romantic writer of the 19^th century.

Leon Cahun (1841-1900). His writings helped lay the basis of the pan-Turkist movement which persists to the present day.

Cahun’s 1896 book text “Introduction a l’Histoire de l’Asie, Turcs, et Mongols, des Origines a 1405 [History of the Turks and Mongols]”, glorified Turco-Mongol conquerors such as Tamerlane and Genghis Khan as “supermen” and as members of a “racial aristocracy” who were the major proponents of culture, arts and sciences in world civilization (see  Hostler, 1957, p.141). 

Leon Cahun however was evidently unaware of the primary historical sources; it is also unclear if he could read Persian sources related to the Mongol conquests nor was he aware of the aforementioned Japanese references.

Mainstream academia and international scholarship has never endorsed the romantic writings of Cahun as his assertions are fundamentally historically unsubstantiated. The only positive reference that can be found with the Mongols is after their conversion to Islam in Persia and in their adoption of Iranian culture during their sojourn – in this period one does indeed see a flowering of arts and architecture. But this only occurred due to the powerful cultural and linguistic influence of the Iranians who had been conquered by the Mongols. Cahun of course made no mention of this.

 Cahun’s works however, become the basis of the pan-Turk movements of the 19^th century. This is corroborated by pan-Turk activist, Ziya Gokalp (1876-1924), is on record for having stated that Cahun’s book was written “…as if to encourage the ideal of pan-Turkism” (Ostrorog (1927, p.56).  Technically speaking, Gokalp was correct.

Ziya Gokalp (1876-1924). Although a Kurd by birth (from Diyarbakr, Eastern Turkey), Ziya Gokalp was to become one of the major thinkers of pan-Turkism .

 
It would appear that this new movie of Genghis Khan is being partly steered by a combination of false romanticism, pan-Turkist ideology along with possible political motives. If true, then this would seriously compromise the movie’s educational (if not entertainment) value. Genghis Khan is indeed a great historical figure, however a movie about him would be most beneficial if all the aspects of his career were elucidated.

]]> http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/147/feed 2 http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/142 http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/142#comments Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:19:59 +0000 KavehFarrokh http://www.eyeranians.com/2008/06/04/13-year-old-iranian-at-khorramshahr-liberation-in-1982/ I received this photo this morning and you may find it of interest. It is a photograph of a 13-year old Iranian solider who has captured close to a dozen pan-Arabists during the liberation of Khorramshahr:

(see also: http://kian-abdollahi.blogfa.com/post-36.aspx)

An interesting facet of pan-Arabism in Iraq was that it brainwashed Arab conscripts into beleiving that all Iranians are cowards and would simply surrender to Saddam Hussein’s forces. Pan-Arabism is the perfect case of ideology leading to battlefield defeats. One veteran mentioned that so many pan-Arab prisoners were captured during the liberation of Khuzestan that problmes had arsien to provide transport trucks for the prisoners.

Allow me to humbly share a case of media censorship during the Iran-Iraq war. A BBC report crew was interviewing a motorized unit of Saddam’s forces and during that interview a commander claimed that all Iranian jets had been destroyed and that “the last few Iranian jets are hiding from us”. A few moments later, Iranian F-4 phantoms appeated (probably with the deadly air to ground Maverick missiles). As soon as the roar of the Iranian jets appeared, the enrire crew bailed out from their tanks and took to their heels:

The reason this report was cencored is most likley due to the fact that Saddam Hussein was an ally of the west at the time, In additon, the media was attempting to portray the pan-Arabists as a very “western” and professional military force. In reality, many of the conscripts suffered from low morale as they has little incentive to fight the Iranians – contrary to the fantasy of pan-Arabism, the vast majority of the Arabs do not dislike the Iranian people and reject pan-Arabism. Arabs and Iranians in fact get along very well and mingle throughout southwest Iran and the entire Persian Gulf region.

Finally, note must be taken of the role that Iranian-Arabs played in supporting the Iranian army in defending Khuzestan and liberating it from Saddam’s froces in 1982. Below is a photo of an Iranian-Arab unit that commemorates the role of the Iranian-Arabs in the defense of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war

Iranian Arabs participating in celebrations in Tehran in September 22, 2007. Iranian Arabs were among the first to defend Iran against the pan-Arabists of Saddam Hussein – their actions in Khorramshahr, Abadan and Ahwaz bought the Iranian army precious time to organize defenses in September-October 1980. The Iranian Arans also participated with the Iranian forces in ejecting Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Iran by 1982. Iranian Arabs were also seen in a rally in front of the UAE Embassy supporting the name “Persian Gulf”.

Racialism and ethno-narcissistic movements are an outdated and discredited philosophy. One of these, pan-Arabism has been both defeated and discredited. Unfortunatley, certain elements in the western hemisphere have had the tendency to support and promote racialists in the pursuit of geopolitical and economic objectives, a process continuing to this day. While such schemes may be partly effective with post-World War One, post-World War Two and post-Soviet-era states, the same schemes are doomed to failure against historical countries such as Iran. The above-cited discussion is a case in point.