The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  Zaehner, Richard Charles. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. New York: Putnam, 1961.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendidad. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  Anahita

  Anahita is the name of the ancient Iranian goddess of waters and fertility. Her name, which appears as Anahid in Middle Persian, means “the immaculate one.” At times she is depicted as a “maid fair of body most strong, tall-formed, high-girded, pure, nobly born of a glorious race, wearing shoes up to the ankle, with all sorts of ornaments and radiant” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 64, 78). Anahita’s sacred animals are the dove and the peacock. The Aban Yasht, or the fifth hymn in the Zoroastrian holy book the Avesta, is dedicated to the veneration of “the great goddess of waters,” the celebrated Aredvi Sura Anahita (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 52). She is “the heavenly spring from which all waters on the earth flow down” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 52). The great god Ahura Mazda speaks to his prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) and calls upon him to offer a sacrifice to Anahita, “the wide-expanding [as she comes down to all places] and health giving, who hates the daevas [demons] and obeys the laws of Ahura, who is worthy of sacrifice in the material world, worthy of prayer in the material world; the self-increasing and holy, the herd-increasing and holy, the fold-increasing and holy, the wealth-increasing and holy, the country-increasing and holy” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 1). Anahita is credited for making “the seed of all males pure,” for making “the womb of all females pure for bringing forth,” for making “all females bring forth in safety,” and for putting “milk into the breasts of all females in the right measure and the right quality” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 2). The Aban Yasht also enumerates the legendary heroes and villains of Iran who worshipped Anahita. These include Haoshyangha (Hoshang, Hushang), Yima (Jamshid), Azhi Dahaka (Zahhak), Thraetaona (Fereydun), Keresaspa (Garshasp), Franghrasyan (Afrasiyab), Kava Usa (Kay Kavus), Husravah (Kay Khosrow), Tusa (Tus), Gamaspa (Jamasp), Vishtaspa (Goshtasp), Zairivairi (Zarir), and Zarathustra himself (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Aban Yasht, 17–84). The hymn to the river goddess Aredvi Sura Anahita reads:

  (1) Aredvi Sura Anahita, increasing corn, just, increasing herds, just, increasing possessions, just. … (3) immense, far-famed, who is as great in her immensity as all these waters which flow forth upon the earth; who, mighty, flows forth from Mount Hukairya upon the sea Vourukasha—all the edges of the sea Vourukasha are turbulent, all the middle is turbulent, as Aredvi Sura Anahita pours forth upon them. … (5) the outflow of that one sea will pour forth over all the seven regions. She pours down her waters summer and winter alike. She purifies the waters, she purifies the seed of males, the womb of females, the milk of females. … (132) Through this sacrifice, through this prayer … descend again, O Aredvi Sura Anahita, from those stars to the Ahura-created earth, to the worshipping priest with cupped hands overflowing, for help to the libation bringer. (Boyce: Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, 33)

  Anahita appears in the inscription of the Persian Achaemenid king Artaxerxes II (r. 404–359 BCE) at Susa, the winter capital of the Achaemenid dynasty. The inscription reads:

  Saith Artaxerxes the Great King, King of Kings, King of Countries, King in this earth, son of Darius the King, of Darius (who was) son of Artaxerxes the King, of Artaxerxes (who was) son of Xerxes the King, of Xerxes (who was) son of Darius the King, of Darius (who was) son of Darius the King, of Darius (who was) son of Hystaspes, An Achaemenian: This palace Darius my great-great-grandfather built; under Artaxerxes my grandfather it was burned; by the favor of Ahuramazda, Anaitis [Anahita], and Mithras, this palace I built. May Ahuramazda, Anaitis, and Mithras protect me from all evil, and that which I have built may they not shatter nor harm. Saith Artaxerxes the King: By the favor of Ahuramazda this is the palace, which I built in my lifetime as a pleasant retreat. May Ahuramazda, Anaitis, and Mithras protect me from all evil, and my building. (Kent: 154–155)

  The cult of Anahita was apparently widespread in Iran and Armenia during the reigns of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, and Arsacid dynasties. According to Strabo, “the sacred rites of the Persians, one and all, are held in honor by both the Medes and the Armenians; but those of Anaitis [Anahita] are held in exceptional honor by the Armenians, who have built temples in her honor in different places” (Strabo: 11.14.15–16). The author of Parthian Stations, Isidore of Charax, wrote that in Ecbatana (modern-day Hamedan in western Iran), “the metropolis of Media,” there was a temple “sacred to Anaitis” [Anahita], where sacrifices were offered (Isidore of Charax: 7). Another temple in nearby Kangavar also may have been dedicated to the veneration of the goddess of waters. According to the scholar Mary Boyce, the “Arsacids followed the example set by their predecessors in venerating Aramazd-Mihr-Anāhid as their chief helpers; and the woman’s name Āb-Nāhīd (‘Anāhīd of water’) is first attested in the Parthian period” (Boyce: Anāhid).

  In 224 CE, Ardashir, a vassal of the Arsacid dynasty in the Istakhr district of Fars province, revolted and killed Artabanus IV, the last monarch of the Arsacid dynasty. Ardashir founded the Sasanian dynasty. According to the Muslim historian Tabari, Sasan, the ancestor of the new ruling family, was the guardian of a fire temple dedicated to the veneration of Anahid (Tabari: 2.580). It is not surprising therefore that throughout the reign of the Sasanian dynasty (r. 224–651 CE), Anahid was venerated as the patron deity of the Sasanian kings, although as followers of Zoroastrianism they worshipped Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd) as the supreme god. In displaying their devotion to Anahid, the Sasanians named their daughters after the water goddess. In his inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam in southern Iran, the second Sasanian monarch, Shapur I, stated that he had founded “a fire called Khosro-Aduranahid [Khosrow Adur Anahid] by name for the soul of our daughter Aduranahid, queen of queens, to perpetuate her name” (Frye: 372). Below Shapur’s inscription on the walls of Ka’ba-ye Zardosht (Ka’ba of Zoroaster) at Naqsh-e Rostam, another inscription, this one by the powerful Zoroastrian priest Kartir, enumerated the honors that the Sasanian kings had bestowed upon him. Among these, it is stated that the Sasanian monarch Bahram II made him “Master of Ceremonials and Warden of the Fires of Anahid-Ardashir and Anahid the Lady at Istakhr” (Boyce: Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, 112–113). In his inscription at Paikuli in northern Iraq, the Sasanian monarch Narseh (r. 293–302 CE) credited his seizure of power to the assistance from and support of Anahid. Anahid also appeared on Narseh’s rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam. The relief, which depicts the investiture of Narseh, shows Anahid offering the diadem of kingship to the Sasanian monarch (Herrmann and Curtis: Sasanian Rock Reliefs). Anahid also appeared at a large arched grotto at Taq-e Bostan near Kermanshah in western Iran. The back wall of this grotto is divided into upper and lower panels. The upper panel depicts the investiture of Khosrow II Parvez (the Victorious), who ruled from 591 to 628 CE. The Sasanian monarch stands in the middle, flanked on the right by the great god Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda) who is handing the Persian king the diadem of power. To the left of the king stands Anahid, the goddess of waters and the patron deity of the Sasanian royal family. It seems that in ancient Iran numerous natural settings created by rivers, lakes, and springs were converted into sanctuaries for veneration of Anahid, the “Lady of the Land.” One of these is most probably the shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu in Ray, south of present-day Tehran, the capital of Iran. Popular belief holds that the shrine contains the body of Shahrbanu, a daughter of Yazdegerd III (r. 632–651 CE), the last king of the Persian Sasanian dynasty. According to legendary accounts, after the collapse of the Sasanian Empire and the death of Yazdegerd III, his daughter, the Persian princess Shahrbanu, was captured by the invading Arab armies and transported to Medina in Hejaz in western Arabia, where she married Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and the second son of Fatima, the prophet’s daughter, and Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the messenger of Islam. After Husse
in was killed on the plains of Karbala in southern Iraq in 680, Shahrbanu returned to Iran, but the enemies of her husband pursued her all the way to Ray. In a last desperate effort to save her life, the Persian princess sought God’s protection, but instead of shouting “Yallahu” (Oh God) she mistakenly uttered “Ya Kuh” (Oh Mountain). In response to this plea the mountain suddenly opened, allowing her to conceal herself among the rocks (Boyce: Bībī Šahrbānū). Sometime later a tomb was erected on the site, which emerged as a major shrine for pilgrims through many centuries down to our own time. No historical evidence exists to confirm the validity of the Shahrbanu legend and her marriage to the third Shia imam, Hussein. The scholar Mary Boyce has maintained that the shrine originated as a pre-Islamic sanctuary dedicated to the veneration of the “Zoroastrian divinity” Anahid, who carried the title of Banu, or “Lady,” and “her shrine at Ray may well have been devoted to her” as Shahrbanu, “Lady of the Land” (i.e., Iran) (Boyce: Bībī Šahrbānū). Boyce also believes that “one of the most beloved mountain shrines of the Zoroastrians of Yazd set beside a living spring and a great confluence of watercourses, is devoted to Bānū-Pārs, ‘The Lady of Persia’” (Boyce: Anāhid). This sanctuary “appears to have been devoted originally to Anāhīd ‘the Lady,’ being rededicated in Islamic times, like the shrine of Bībī Šahrbānū near Ray, to a legendary Sasanian princess” (Boyce: Bībī Šahrbānū; Boyce: Anāhid).

  Rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam in Fars in southern Iran depicts the investiture of the Sasanian monarch Narseh by the goddess Anahita (Middle Persian: Anahid). A water divinity and river goddess, Anahita was one of the most popular deities of ancient Iran. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

  See also: Ancient Cities: Bibi Shahrbanu; Cultures: Ab, Aban, Aban Mah; Prophets: Zarathustra (Zoroaster); Religion: Ahura Mazda; Avesta; Primary Documents: Document 37

  Further Reading

  Boyce, Mary. 1989. “Anāhid.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1989, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anahid.

  Boyce, Mary. “Bībī Šahrbānū.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1989, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bibi-sahrbanu.

  Boyce, Mary. Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

  Frye, Richard Nelson. The History of Ancient Iran. München: C. H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1984.

  Herrmann, G., and V. S. Curtis. “Sasanian Rock Reliefs.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2002, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sasanian-rock-reliefs.

  Isidore of Charax. Parthian Stations: An Account of the Overland Trade Route between the Levant and India in the First Century B.C. The Greek text, with a translation and commentary. Translated by Wilfred H. Schoff. Philadelphia: Commercial Museum, 1914.

  Kent, Roland G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.

  Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Translated by Horace Leonard Jones. London: William Heinemann, 1930.

  Tabari. Tarikh-e Tabari, Vol. 2. Translated from Arabic into Persian by Abol Qassem Payandeh. Tehran: Asatir Publications, 1984.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts, and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. 1883; reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  Angra Mainyu. See Ahriman

  Asha and Asha Vahishta

  Asha is the word for “truth” in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book. In Old Persian, the language of the Persian Achaemenid dynasts, the word appears as Arta. Asha is frequently mentioned in the Avesta as an opposite of druj, or “lie.” Some scholars have suggested that asha can be also translated as moral order or righteousness. In the Gathas, the personal hymns and meditations of Zarathustra, which are dedicated to the veneration and praise of the great god and the wise lord Ahura Mazda, Asha is addressed by Ahura Mazda as the personified righteous order, an aspect of the god himself.

  In the Avesta, Asha Vahishta (best truth, best righteousness, best order) appears as one of the Amesha Spentas, or the holy and bounteous immortals created by Ahura Mazda to assist him with the creation of the world. According to the teachings of Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda had created the world through his holy spirit, Spenta Mainyu, and with assistance from six holy immortals known as Amesha Spentas (Middle Persian: Ameshaspands). The Amesha Spentas represent the attributes of the great god in the material world. Ahura Mazda brought these holy entities into existence to assist him with the creation and protection of the seven holy elements, namely the sky, Earth, water, plants, cattle, and fire. Ahura Mazda himself protects the seventh creation, namely human beings. Asha Vahishta, which appears as Ardvahisht in Middle Persian and Ordibehesht in New Persian, is one of the holy immortals created by Ahura Mazda to protect fire. Fire is the son of Ahura Mazda and the greatest of all holy creations (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Sirozah, 9).

  The great god and his holy spirit, Spenta Mainyu, together with the Amesha Spentas constitute Zoroastrianism’s seven holy immortals, or the Heptad. Each holy immortal represents an attribute of its creator, Ahura Mazda. As beneficent beings who bestow good on Earth, each is responsible for protecting an element of the world order. Each of the holy immortals is a yazata, a being worthy of worship in its own right. The Amesha Spentas represent the power and majesty of their creator, Ahura Mazda. They also personify the best physical and moral qualities of divine creation. But as Ahura Mazda the good god is opposed by Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) the evil spirit, so too each of the Amesha Spentas is opposed by a demonic counterpart (Pahlavi Texts, Part I: Bundahishn, 1.27). In this battle of opposites, Asha, the truth, was opposed by Druj, the lie, one of the most powerful demonic creations of the evil spirit.

  As already mentioned, the creation of Asha Vahishta or Ardvahisht (best truth) is directly linked to the care and protection of fire. The relation between truth and fire was not, however, an arbitrary association. Ancient Iranians believed in a fire ordeal. For example, in the story of the Iranian legendary hero Siyavash, the fire ordeal plays an important role in demonstrating the innocence of the protagonist when he is accused of a grave offense. Sudabeh, the queen of Iran, wife of Kay Kavus, and stepmother of Siyavash, falls in love with her stepson and attempts to seduce the young prince by inviting him to her quarters at the palace. When Siyavash rejects her sexual advances, Sudabeh becomes enraged and accuses him of raping her. Outraged by his queen’s accusation, the king orders Siyavash to undergo the test of demonstrating his innocence, which requires the accused to ride a horse through a large bonfire created by setting alight an enormous mountain of firewood and timber. Ancient Iranian tradition maintained that if the accused was innocent, he would emerge out of the fire unscathed. If he was guilty, however, the fire would consume him as he rode through it. Siyavash accepts the challenge. He mounts his horse, rides through the bonfire, and survives the ordeal unharmed.

  See also: Cultures: Ab, Aban, Aban Mah; Religion: Adur; Ahriman; Ahura Mazda; Amesha Spentas; Anahita; Avesta; Mithra

  Further Reading

  Boyce, Mary. “Ameša Spenta.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1989, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amesa-spenta-beneficent-divinity.

  Boyce, Mary. Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

  Pahlavi Texts, Part I: The Bundahishn, Bahman Yasht, and Shayast La Shayast. Translated by E. W. West. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  Schlerath, B. “Aša.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 1987, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/asa-means-truth-in-avestan#pt1.

  Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. The Spirit of Zoroastrianism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.

  Zaehner, Richard Charles. The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism. New York: Putnam, 1961.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts, and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. 1883; reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  Ashi Vanguhi

  Ashi Vanguhi is the female deity or goddess of fortune and wealth in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book. Her name means “the good Ashi.” Ashi Vanguhi personifies piety. She is also
venerated together with “Parendi the goddess of Treasures” as “the source of all the good and riches that are connected with piety” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: 270). In the Avesta, the Ard Yasht is dedicated to this female deity, who is described as the daughter of the great god Ahura Mazda and a sister of Amesha Spentas, the holy immortals who had been brought into existence by Ahura Mazda to assist him with the creation of the world (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Ashi Yasht, 17.2). She is the “shining, high, tall-formed, well worth of sacrifice, with a loud-sounding chariot, strong, well-fare giving, healing, with fullness of intellect, and powerful” deity to whom the prophet Zarathustra offers a sacrifice in Airyanem Vaejah, the homeland of the Iranian people in great antiquity (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Ashi Yasht, 17.1). Some of the prodigious personages of the Avesta who were transformed into great kings in Iran’s legendary history, including Haoshyangha (Hoshang/Hushang), Yima (Jamshid), Thraetaona (Fereydun), Husravah (Kay Khosrow), and Vishtaspa (Goshtasp), also offer a sacrifice to Ashi Vanguhi (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Yasht, 17.24, 28, 33, 41, 49, 270).

  See also: Religion: Amesha Spentas; Avesta

  Further Reading

  The Zend-Avesta, Part I: The Vendidad. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  The Zend-Avesta, Part II: The Sirozahs, Yashts, and Nyayish. Translated by James Darmesteter. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1965.

  Astvihad

  The demon of death and dissolution in Zoroastrianism. Astvihad serves the evil spirit Ahriman in his battles against the god of good, the wise lord Ahura Mazda. When the evil spirit decides to corrupt and destroy the creations of the lord wisdom, Ahura Mazda, particularly the first man, Gayomard, he resorts to Astvihad. The evil spirit “thought the creatures of Ohrmazd (Ahura Mazda) were all rendered useless [powerless] except Gayomard” and unleashed Astvihad with 1,000 deaths, bringing demons (devs) against Gayomard (Bundahishn: 3.21). Gayomard’s appointed time with death, however, had not come, and Astvihad could not obtain any means of murdering the first man.