Eschatologia Iranica I: From Zoroastrian Cosmos to Abbasid Madīnat al-Salām: A Journey through Utopia and Heterotopia †
Abstract
:1. Theoretical Framework
“Utopias are sites with no real place. They are sites that have a general relation of direct or inverted analogy with the real space of Society. They present society itself in a perfected form, or else society turned upside down, but in any case these utopias are fundamentally unreal spaces”
“[…] real places—places that do exist and that are formed in the very founding of society—which are something like counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted. Places of this kind are outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality”
- Spatial practice (physical): It especially includes places, as well as spatial relations, which are characteristic of any social formation. As a perceived space, it connects the places of everyday life, private life, work, and leisure.
- Representations of space (mental): They are linked to the order and knowledge, and to signs and codes. As conceived space or conceptualized space, it is the province of scientists, spatial planners, and technocrats. It constitutes the dominant space in any given society.
- Representational space (social): They are linked to the hidden side of social life and embody complex symbolism. As a space directly lived through its associated images and symbols, it is of direct relevance to users and inhabitants. It overlaps with physical space and uses its objects symbolically.
“The historical and its consequences, the ‘diachronic’, the ‘etymology’ of locations in the sense of what happened at a particular spot or place and thereby changed it—all of this becomes inscribed in space. The past leaves its traces; time has its own script. Yet this space is always, now and formerly, a present space, given as an immediate whole, complete with its associations and connections in their actuality. Thus production process and product present themselves as two inseparable aspects, not as two separable ideas”
Source: king | Target: god | |
kingly political structure | ⇒ | divine organization (pantheon) |
king’s minister | ⇒ | subordinate deities |
king’s relation to his subjects | ⇒ | god’s relation to his believers |
the dress of king | ⇒ | the dress of god |
the residence of king | ⇒ | the abode of god |
king’s production | ⇒ | god’s creation |
2. Earth and Sky in the Antique Zoroastrian Cosmography
3. Yima’s Vara
- His multiplication and promotion of the creatures in his kingdom, which led to a situation in which there was no longer sufficient room for the creatures on the earth, and thus, he had to expand the earth three times. An ideal Achaemenid king did this for his territory as well. This territorial expansion provides a potential explanation for the placement of Yima’s myth after the first chapter of the Wīdēwdād, which offers a mytho-historio-geographical depiction of Iranian regions.
- His selection of the best samples of each species.
- His construction of Vara to temporarily overcome the hard troubles of the immanent world.
- The circular outline of the surface;
- The division into center and periphery;
- The triadic division of the periphery;
- The surrounding body of water;
- The stony dome over the surface;
- The semi-ellipsoid-like three dimensional space.
4. Ardašīr-xwarrah
- The radial-concentric division of the periphery;
- An uninhabited center;
- The hierarchization of the ring zones with descending social status from the center to the periphery;
- A surrounding enclosure.
5. Madīnat al-Salām
“I am starting with Iraq since Iraq is the center of the world and the navel of the earth and I am mentioning Baghdad since it is located in the center of Iraq and it is a unique city in the East and the West regarding its expanse, greatness, buildings, prosperity, amplitude of water and weather”.31
“I have seen the great cities, including those noted for their durable construction. I have seen such cities in the districts of Syria, in Byzantine territory, and in other provinces, but I have never seen a city of greater height, more perfect circularity, more endowed with superior merits or possessing more spacious gates, or more perfect faṣīls than az-Zawrāʾ, that is to say, the city of Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr”33.
“[…] long before the fall of the Sasanian Empire, a mysterious light used to hover over the site, but disappeared when approached. It was reported to Kisra, who passed on the problem to his seers (kahana) and sages (ulamāʾ). Their verdict was: ‘A town shall be built on this site, whose people shall bring about the destruction of the Persians’”
“On the way for searching a comfortable settlement, one of caliph’s commanders needed medical treatment. In their conversation the physician responds: ‘In one of our books we find it written that a man named Miqlāṣ will build a city called al-Zawrā’.42 As Caliph hears the physician’s statement says: ‘By God, I’m that very man! I was called Miqlāṣ as a lad but then the name for me fell into disuse’”43.
“Baghistān is the house of idols and bagh is the idol, and that is how Baghdad is called, i.e., “the gift of the idol”, according to al-Aʾṣmaʿī. The reason is that they call king bagh. They are leader and lord, and king of China is thus called bagh-pūr, i.e., the son of the king”.
“As ruler of the colossal ʿAbbasid Empire, al-Manṣur re-enacted the role of the ancient kings before him, and in fact the role of the original Creator who had set the paradigm for all ages to come, when he founded his new city to symbolize not only the change of dynasty, but a divinely decreed sovereignty over the world. The plan of Baghdad is really nothing less than an Islamic mandala worked out on the huge scale of urban architecture. It is certainly a schematic representation of the world—essentially that of the Sasanian monarchs—in purely formal, aniconic terms”.
6. Ardašīr-xwarrah as a Representational Space in Textual Sources
7. God’s Creation and King’s Foundation, King’s Garden and God’s Paradise
8. Conclusions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1 | |
2 | As an example of the former group, we can mention Maltese temple architecture, in which the ancestral dwelling, a utopia, is used as a model for the architecture of the heterotopic space, the temple complex (Wunn 2014, 31f.). Conversely, the Hittites utopianize the capital of their empire, Hattusa, a real place, through the ritual act to be performed exclusively for the purpose of their own enhancement (Hutter 2014, pp. 140–45). Darius’ tomb, a heterotopia in itself, was built according to the model of his palace (Huff 2014, pp. 192–94 with n. 102 and Figure 27). It can thus be described as a “palace of the afterlife”. It is therefore a utopianized heterotopia; see (Rezania 2014, p. 14). |
3 | For a description of this lexicalization process see (Shayegan 1384). |
4 | The three adjectives repeatedly attributed to the earth in the Avestan texts are: paθana- “flat”, skarǝna- “round”, and dūraē.pāra- “with far borders, broad”; see Yt 10.95 = 99, 5.38, 17.19, V 19.4, Aog 66, and (Rezania 2017, p. 180). |
5 | Another piece of evidence for the circularity of the earth is its representation in the egg-cosmology; see below. |
6 | The first part of this verse reads: “The first mountain to arise, o Spitāma Zaraϑuštra, on this earth (was) the lofty Haraitī; the whole of it extends around both up to the western lands and (up to) the eastern (lands)” (Hintze 1994, p. 13). |
7 | Y 11.7: “[…] as he bound the villainous Turian Fraŋrasiian, who was encased in iron in the middle third of this earth”. |
8 | One might think that Yima’s triadic extension of the earth results in its tetradic division. However, the Zoroastrian literature sometimes count and sometimes do not count the main component in the entire list. Yt 1.7f., for example, list 20 names for Ahura Mazdā, which result beside his proper name, ahura- mazdā-, a list of 21 components; for the significance of this figure see below. The standardized sevenfold list of Amǝṣ̌a Spǝṇtas, however, consists of Ahura Mazdā and six other dieties. |
9 | Yt 13.2 ~ V 5.25: “Through their wealth and their glory, I (scil. Ahura Mazdā) hold apart, O Zarathustra, that heaven which is above, shining and visible from afar, which encompasses this earth from above and all around, like a bird its egg; it stands spiritually, firmly together, with wide boundaries, in the form of glowing *iron, shining on all thirds (of the earth)”. |
10 | See (Güntert 1923, pp. 395–404), which has hardly lost any of its appeal even after a century, (Christensen 1917–1934, 2: esp. 45; Humbach 2002, 2004; Panaino 2004b; Kellens 1988; Lincoln 1981a, pp. 67–95), but see also (Kellens 1984, n. 19) below. |
11 | To consider is for example the difference between his direct dialogue with Ahura Mazdā according to the Avestan narration and his interrogation with Zarathustra in PRDd 31.C1. |
12 | Yima’s ambivalent depiction in some Avestan passages should not be neglected, however. They make him responsible for the first lie; see Yt 19.34. It is possible that Zoroastrian scholars of the early Islamic period accentuated the negative representation of Yima that was already present in their tradition. |
13 | According to Lincoln (1981a, pp. 37–48, 134–62), this exemplifies a general tension between priests and warriors representing themselves as responsible for providing salvation, an old-age topic in the Indo-Iranian history, rooted in the ecology of their tribe. It seems that the post-Sasanian tradition more strongly attempts to demonstrate the superiority of priesthood to the kingship. |
14 | The Avestan terms used here initiated many discussions; to mention only few of them see (Cantera 2012; Panaino 2015). Even if the exact meanings of the terms are unknown, we can concur in their function with Lincoln (2012b, p. 23 = 2021, p. 25) that the text represents two competing means to re-establish the primordial perfection on earth, king or priest. |
15 | In this regard, see (Panaino 2020, para. 14): “With his refusal of an immediate beatification (=the union with his most beautiful feminine double), he accepted his duty for the sake of humanity and of Ahura Mazdā’s project against the demons”. |
16 | See (Rezania 2017, pp. 207–24; Panaino 2012); I abstain from detailed philological discussions here, which interested readers can find in these references and in other publications mentioned there. |
17 | See V 2.5, 29, 37, Y 9.5, Yt 9.10, 15.16, 17.30, 19.32f. The negation of non-pleasant characteristics of life serves as a powerful linguistic device utilized by religious traditions to depict the idealized state of paradise; see (Lincoln 1980). |
18 | See V 2.8, 12, 16, 17, 41, and (Lincoln 2012b, 26f.; 2021, p. 29). |
19 | See (Oberlies 2012, p. 75); according to (Kellens 1984), Yima differs from his Indian counterpart in that he has the responsibility to restore immortality, whereas the Indian Yama is the king of the dead. We, however, find a particular reference to immortality provided by Yama for his people in RV 1.83.5, reflected also in Dk. 3.227; see (Lincoln 1981b, p. 235, n. 66). |
20 | The significance of the fragrance for garden is exemplified by a designation for garden in Middle Iranian as “place of fragrance” (Middle Persian bōyestān, Parthian bōδestān, Sogdian βwδstʾn). |
21 | See MX 27.24-6, Dk 3.229, Dd 38.19, GBd 32.10. |
22 | The Pahlavi literature renders this tetradic division of paradisiac space as a wahišt with three hierarchical zones and above it garōdmān, the abode of Ohrmazd; see e.g., DMX 6.9-12 and 56.13m AWN 7.1-10.1. |
23 | From a geometrical point of view, it can certainly be claimed that a surrounding wall in a circular form is the most efficient form in respect to the proportion of the perimeter of the surrounding wall to the surface of surrounded area. We, however, should not neglect the high costs of producing a perfect circular wall. |
24 | For the representation of this concept in the Achaemenian period see Daraeios’ inscriptions DPh, DHa, and (Rezania 2017, 118f). |
25 | |
26 | The name Fīrūzābād, presumably with the meaning “constructed through a victory”, probably alludes to this narration. It is worthy highlighting that the name Fīrūzābād is not a name given first to the city (or area) by the Buyid ruler ʿAżd-al-Daula (933–1062), but is already attested in the seventh century; see (Mittertrainer 2020, p. 70). |
27 | KAP 4.17: šahrestān-ēw ī ardašīr-xwarrah xwānēnd kerd ud ān ī wazurg war kand ud āb čahār ǰōy aziš āwurd ud ātaxš ō war nišāst; see also (al-Iṣṭakhrī 1870, p. 124; 1340, p. 110). |
28 | See (Stronach 1989; 1990a; 1990b, 177f., Figure 4f). According to (Schimmel 1991, p. 178), cahār-bāgh (“Four Garten”), alludes to the four rivers of paradise with the tomb at the confluence of them. It is worthy referring to the significance of streams and waterways in the Achaemenian paradai̯dās; see (Hultgård 2000, p. 5). |
29 | Al-Bīrūnī holds the existence of this cosmologic belief among Muslim for granted: “The mountain Ḳâf, as it is called by our common people, is with the Hindus the Lokâloka. […] Similar views are held by the Zoroastrians of Sogdiana, viz. that the mountain Ardiyâ surrounds the world” (al-Bīrūnī 1887, 124f.; 1910, p. 249). |
30 | |
31 | According to Muḥammadī Malāyirī (1394, pp. 194–99), al-Yaʿqūbī implicitly pursues the Sasanian tradition of the historical geography, according to which Iraq was considered as “the Heart of the Empire.”). |
32 | He writes “Its air is more nutritious than any air, its water is fresher than any water, and its breeze is gentler than any breeze. Among the moderate regions, it is just like the center of the circle” (Yāqūt 1866–1873, p. 686). |
33 | |
34 | See (al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī 1985, p. 68; Lassner 1970, p. 47; al-Yaʿqūbī 1892, p. 254; Yāqūt 1866–1873, p. 685); on the possibility of the ex post construction of the horoscope see (Thomann 2022, p. 101). |
35 | |
36 | See e.g., (Surah 4:57, 9:72, 16:31, 20:76, 26:147, 37:43, 44:52, 52:17, 61:12, and 68:34). |
37 | See (Surah 6:127 and 10:25). |
38 | On comparison of this palace and paradise see also (Ibn al-Jauzī 1342, p. 12). |
39 | See (Surah 18:107 and 23:11); also (Wiet 1971, p. 28; Kennedy 1988). |
40 | (Beckwith 1984, p. 153, n. 12); see also (Hirsch 2020, p. 103). |
41 | (Kellens 1995, p. 26) highlights the role of smell in the communication with gods. (Hultgård 2000, pp. 30–32) sees traces of the idea of garden in several Zoroastrian eschatological narratives. Regarding the role of senses in the eschatology, see also GBd 28.4, in which the head of the human body is likened to garōdmān “the highest heaven”, makes ears, nose, and mouth but not eyes responsible for receiving sensory pleasure. |
42 | This name is given to al-Manṣūr’s capital as well (al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī 1985, p. 77; Lassner 1970, p. 56) with the meaning “the crooked.” There are different reasons why Madīnat al-Salām has been designated as such (see Lassner 1970, p. 245, n. 45). Lassner rejects these reasons and suggests: “The most plausible explanation, however, is the one that indicates that the name is derived from the system of bent entrances built into the outer gateways of the famous wall system” (Lassner 1980, p. 167). |
43 | |
44 | For these narratives see (Lassner 1965, 138f., n. 22f). |
45 | al-Yaʿqūbī (1892, p. 237), for example, writes that al-Manṣūr sent in 140 h.q. his son, Mahdī, for a battle. Having stayed in a place, he asked for its name. “Baghdad is the name” was the answer. He said: “That is the city which my father, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, wanted to found as he informed me.” In connection with al-Manṣūr’s investigations for the place of his city, al-Ṭabarī (1879–1901, p. 277) writes: “The scouts’ selection fell upon a place called Baghdad, a village on the bank of the Ṣarāt”. |
46 | |
47 | |
48 | |
49 | (Eliade 1954, pp. 6–11); see also (Barrie 1996, p. 64). |
50 | (Lincoln 2019, p. 101; 2021, p. 152). For probable pre-Achaemenian models of Persian gardens see (Fauth 1979; Tuplin 1996, pp. 80–88); for samples of Achaemenid enclosed gardens in Pasargadae, Persepolis, and Susa see (Tuplin 1996, pp. 88–90). |
51 | (Lincoln 2019, p. 102; 2021, 156f). Lincoln understands bāji “portion” not simply as the portion due to the King but as a portion to restore the primordial happiness in its unity. In this regard, the tributary scene depicted on the stairways of Apadāna palace in Persepolis is the representation of an immanent moment of the original transcendent unity restored by bringing the immanent multiplicity together (Lincoln 2012a, pp. 117–23); see also (Lincoln 2019, p. 97, n. 51; 2021, p. 152, n. 52). |
52 | E.g., Median *paridaiza, Akkadian pardēsu, Elamite partetaš, Greek paradeisos, Hebrew and Aramaic pardēs, Soghdian prδyz, Khwarezmian prδyzk, Armenian partēz, Syriac pardaysā, Arabic farādīs and firdaus, New Persian pālīz, Kurdish pārēs (Hasandūst 1393, 2:618f..) |
53 | (Lincoln 2019, p. 102; 2021, p. 157); The dashes used by Lincoln in this sentence conceals a basic event structure metaphor: states are locations (Kövecses 2010, 162f.). By this, the Achaemenid paradise is not just a beautiful garden but the spatialization of a perfect state. |
54 | (Bremmer 2008, pp. 35–55; 2016); Regarding the early stage of the term, he writes: “Secondly, early Iranian ‘paradise’ had no fixed meaning. It could be a storage-place, vineyard, orchard, stable, forest or nursery of trees. Evidently, it was a kind of vox media of which the most prominent element was the enclosure. Thirdly, none of these descriptions closely fits the Garden of Eden yet” (Bremmer 2008, p. 39). This accords with the Avestan evidence, where the term denotes a contaminated space encircled with multiple enclosures. According to (Bremmer 2008, p. 52), the translator(s) chose paradeisos because this term much better “conjured up the image of a royal park worthy of Jahweh” than a Greek term like kêpos. This again shows a manifestation of the conceptual metaphor god is a king. It is worthy mentioning that paradai̭dā or pardēs has not been used at all in the Zoroastrian texts to denote the heaven. Presumably, paradai̭dā/pardēs was for Zoroastrians as earthy as kêpos was for the Greeks and therefore not worthy of Ahura Mazdā. The Armenian translation of the Bible (Hultgård 2000, p. 21 supports this suggestion. It uses partēz in the general meaning “garden” but used another Iranian loan word, draxt “tree”, to denote the eschatological paradise.) |
55 | I do not mean, however, that the Achaemenian paradai̭dās did not include any religious dimension. As (Hultgård 2000, p. 19) suggests, cultivation was a Zoroastrian virtue, on which the third chapter of the Wīdēwdād emphasizes. |
56 | (Hultgård 2000, p. 27) calls this process “Eschatologisierung des Paradies-Gartens”. For eschatological connotations of the name given to one Achaemenid garden, vispa-šiyāti (“All-Happiness”), see (Lincoln 2003, 153f.; 2019, p. 102, n. 55; 2021, p. 157, n. 56) with further references. |
57 | See (Amrhein 2015), who posits a correlation between artificiality, accessibility, and sacrality. |
58 | Briant (1996, pp. 213–16) and Hultgård (2000, p. 6) see a relationship between paradeisos and the king’s table. |
59 | M 47/1 in (Sundermann 1981, 102f.); translation after (Klimkeit 1993, 211f.); see also (Fauth 1979, p. 8; Piras 2023). |
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Rezania, K. Eschatologia Iranica I: From Zoroastrian Cosmos to Abbasid Madīnat al-Salām: A Journey through Utopia and Heterotopia. Religions 2024, 15, 1170. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101170
Rezania K. Eschatologia Iranica I: From Zoroastrian Cosmos to Abbasid Madīnat al-Salām: A Journey through Utopia and Heterotopia. Religions. 2024; 15(10):1170. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101170
Chicago/Turabian StyleRezania, Kianoosh. 2024. "Eschatologia Iranica I: From Zoroastrian Cosmos to Abbasid Madīnat al-Salām: A Journey through Utopia and Heterotopia" Religions 15, no. 10: 1170. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101170