Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories
Jay Corwin
Borges provides clues and references to regional history and literature in certain stories, and the etymology of particular words may signal deeper collective meaning when paired with related, culturally significant clues. In Ficciones Borges distills broad readings of history and literature. In the volume’s first collection, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan, the reader is challenged to find meaning in the references to Goethe and the term di- ván in “El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan” and to decipher the mean- ing of fire in “Las ruinas circulares.” There are religious structures in that story, and in “El acercamiento a Almotásim,” with references to particular literary works in footnotes that tie the story to the apocryphal encyclopae- dia entry in “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” In that story Borges the narra- tor states that few place names in the entry are identifiable. The common factor in these topographical names, religious structures, historical and literary references is Persia, as is the setting of “Las ruinas circulares.” It may therefore be meaningful if not necessary to undertake a reading of the
Variaciones Borges 41 » 2016 Jay Corwin 28 172). The seriousness of theirplace Achaemenidsocietyisnoted in bySimon Jaime Alazraki interprets the word “mago” the same way in while com - of Matthewof , William Barclay Magi notes that“these were menwho were gician’s son begiven tothefire god sothat‘alguna voz’ will glorify himin Sebag Montefiore, paraphrasing Herodotus: ers andinterpreters of dreams” (30). Onlylater didtheterm, according to collection that views these references to Persia as central to deciphering another temple” (137). Inhisinterpretation Williams correctly correlates English as“magician,” weakening thecultural connection he establishes. Barclay, lose its original to denote meaning a magician or charlatan. As Borges isetymological, since skilled philosophy, in andnatural medicine science. They were soothsay- lection. The etymology ofbecomes refining point evident several in ritual sacrifices (I.131)withoutwhom suchsacrifices could nottake place. to thecentral character circulares” of “Lasruinas asawizard (20, 96, 121, ter asa“magician from India” (Bloom 138). Donald Shaw’s interpretation the storytoPersia, butalso misses rendering “mago” themarkin into that “the fire god grants themagician’s wishwiththecaveat thatthema- fire “the that that we may view theextent towhich Persian culture permeates thecol - Eljardínthe symbolismin desenderos quesebifurcan. is alsoderailed translation byasimilar of theword, asherefers repeatedly of thestory: line the last in themagician’s condition of appearance dreamt is used for itsetymological components (unus animus)rather thanfor its noted byHerodotus, theMagi were aMedian caste of priestsinvolved in moved from theEuropean image of amagician orwizard. InThe Gospel normative order in meaning tosubtlyanticipate what isliterally disclosed on theusementing of theword thesame story: in word “unánime” “the major critical circulares.” readings of “Lasruinas Mac Williams states microscopic of inspection individual words, anditisthrough thisprocess by another” (40-41).by another” EmirRodríguez Monegal Borges’s identifies charac- Among manyotherdifficulties, one thatisparticular tothereader of The Avestan maguš, Greek plural Magi, itsoriginal isin sense far re- Astyages, King of Media western in Persia, dreamed thathisdaughter was urinating agoldenwas stream urinating which squirted outof thewhole of his kingdom. The magi, thePersian priests, interpreted thistomeanthathis to interpret meaning in hisstoriesrequiresto interpret in meaning a 1 The historical of theterm meaning maguš iscritical tounderstanding vari - Merv.” The eponymous character, like Smerdis, isbothhistorical andan geográfica, sóloreconocimos tres —Jorasán, Armenia, Erzurum—, inter- Birds, on which thenovel theBorges in storyispurportedly based. Where- Smerdis according totheoldestsources was amannamed Gaumata who cording tothenarrator, Smerdis istheonly historical character thathe was murdered byDariusweeks hisreign into 522BCE. in Historical depth ous themes in Eljardínous themesin desenderos quesebifurcan because itisattached to of meaning underscoresof meaning theneed toconsider theword “mago” itsorig in - as therecycling of Nishapur may betaken otherwise for aninteresting but Nishapur, authorof thelengthy philosophical Sufipoem, Conference the of “Elacercamientoagain in aAlmotásim” through references to Attar of as anillusionist, magician orcharlatan. about Uqbar. The two primarysources of Smerdis theMagus (andimpos- and Bioy Casares are abletoverify theapocryphal in encyclopaedia article scription authored byDariustheGreat of Persia the6thcentury in BCE. sequently in “Las ruinas circulares,” “Las ruinas sequently in “Lalotería andin enBabilonia.” several thecollection, timesin “Tlön, in first Uqbar, OrbisTertius,” sub- from the name of ahistoric character, Smerdis (Ficciones rasan is of particular importance. It is thecentral region of an earlier story tor) are Herodotus the5thcentury in BCE,- andtheearlierBehistunin in Khorasan,in theearlyAbbasidera. during Nishapur ismentioned once impostor. The storytakes place Nishapur, in animportant cultural center sentenceing “Tlön”: in “Deloscatorce nombres quefiguran parte enla senseinal asamobedof mobeds, i.e. aZoroastrian high priest, rather than meaningless coincidence, “Hákim deMerv” alsocontains akey phrase on polados eneltextopolados deunmodoambiguo” (15-16). The mention of Kho- posed asthereal Smerdis (Bardiya), younger son of Cyrus theGreat, and lo que puede saber de la lunaelhombrelo quepuedesaberdela noversado enastrología” (72). “…sé quelosmagos nologran ponerse deacuerdo; sé desuspoderosos propósitos Borges delineatestherealm of thefollow theAchaemenidempire in - Historia universal de la infamia, “Eltintorero enmascarado Hákim de grandsons would threaten his rule. Astyages married his daughter to a weak, unthreatening neighbour totheeast, theKing of Anshan. This mar- riage spawned anheir, Kourosh, who became Cyrus theGreat. (57) 16). The word appears 1 Ac-
Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories 29 Jay Corwin 30 Achaemenid Persia suggest thatisasymbolic reference totwo separate pe- 2 (56). Zend, alsoknown asAvestan, isanancientPersian language most cyclopaedia Iranica: Khorasan andimposture anditssubsequent revival andapplication to description of themagus’s language isaparadox, as, according toThe En- does thereader. de Uqbarhabíadeclarado cópula quelosespejosyla son abominables, closely associated withZoroastrianism, related totheOldPersian of the which “Tlön” and its subsequent stories rely, regarding copulation and Los espejos y la paternidadLos espejos y la son abominables, multiplican porque la - y afir and timeof origin circulares” of hismagus “Lasruinas in toaparticular a source of hisinformation on Persian hisaccount historyin of Hákim: Sir as follows: “Entonces Bioy Casares recordó queunodelosheresiarcas Percy Sykes (Historia universal dela infamia 88). Behistun inscription, andmore closely related toVedic Sanskrit. Borges’s region andera: “donde elidiomazend noestácontaminado degriego” riods of historyatthesame time. Moreover passing, andin Borges reveals menistan to Khorasan where he is revered as a sort of Sufi prophet before narrator notes hissuspicion about theorigin of theintriguing phrase as man” (Historia universal dela infamia94). This isparaphrased “Tlön” in mirrors: “Latierra quehabitamos esunerror, unaincompetente parodia. phrase “Tlön” in isdeliberate. relation use in Itsinitial topost-Islamic porque multiplican el número de los hombres” (Ficciones 14). Borges the being unveiledbeing andhisfraud discovered. Borges’s reemployment of the http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/greece-xiii In thecontext of theearlierstory, Hákim deMerv travels from Turk- Later Eljardín in desenderos quesebifurcan Borges narrows theplace Achaemenid through Sasanian times and even beyond, the number of Thus, noGreek loanwords seem tohave been preserved anyof theOld in Iranian languages known tous… far less impressive than thenumber of borrowings theother direction. in frontation between the Greco-Roman/Byzantine and Iranian worlds from Notwithstanding manycenturies of attimesintensive contact andcon- loanwords borrowed from Greek thepre-Islamic into Iranian languages is 2
A well-known episode from theShahnamehconcerns aking’s favored son, Avestan was probably long dead by the time of Greek Per incursions into - 3 guage. As noted there are notraces of Greek ancientPersian influence in Khorasan, composed his epic different eras atthesame moment. Seyavash, who musttraverse afire from which heemerges unscathed. This venerated, suggesting that the time frame is post-Zoroastrian, i.e. Abba- ence orthephrase ismetaphorical, referring subtlytoalater stage the in who discovers attheendthat, unscathed byfire, he isapiece of fiction. of the Arabic language, reinforcing the fact thatBorges isreferring totwo Egypt. Modern Persian, from dating thatera, ismarked bytheinfluence First andforemost, there isthequestion of thepurityof themagus’s- lan Sudabeh heard the tumult she came out on the roof of her palace and saw the fire; mut- sid. After thefall of theSasanid Empire, thePersian language spoken at languages suchasOldPersian andAvestan. The story’sreligious structure linguistic historyof Persia. The second ismore asBorges plausible refers sia. Either tures isitspaucityof Arabic words. Cyrus Massoudi notes that: the timebegan ground losing toArabic, muchlike theCoptic language in than accidentally, thatmay circulares.” certain clarify “Lasruinas motifsin the Achaemenidera. IfBorges’s magus isanachronistic deliberately rather to eleventh andtwelfth century poetsof Khorasan thecollection. in is adisused temple where along forgotten god associated withfire was is mirrored theexperience in of Borges’s circulares” magus “Las ruinas in tering to herself in rage,tering to herself in she longed for evil to befall the prince. The eyes world’s were Seyavash passes unscathed through fire asatest of hispurityandinnocence: “When The purity of Old Persian and Avestan were question during not in In thelate tenth and earlyeleventh centuries, Ferdowsi, apoetfrom What Ferdowsi istherefore credited withisthetriumphantrebirth of the (154) amazing feat given thatfor 300 years theArabic language had Persian language, which hassurvived essentially intact tothepresent day. Ferdowsi famously used only 984Arabic expressions throughout theen- tirety of this near60,000-couplet epic poem. This hasbeen regarded asan ing the local languageing as akind of hybrid of Arabic andPahlavi Persian. thenativeitself into language of Sasanian andpost-Sasanian Persia, leav- Borges was unaware thatAvestan bearsnotrace of Greek- influ Shahnameh. One of fea its distinguishing - insinuated insinuated 3
Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories 31 Jay Corwin 32 “The storyasarereading andasummaryof anotherstory, eitheranimagi- circulares”“Las ruinas may beunderstood bothasapiece of philosophical “El onceno tomodeja entender que tres razones capitales determinaron la The seemingly author’s gratuitous stress on thepurityof hismagus’s- lan Shahnameh. That matter, along withtheorigin of themagus “Lasruinas in guage, hisearlieremphases on Khorasan andhisfamiliarity withPersian or dustdirton him” (226). dreams, upon reality. This regarding particular point solipsism seems to circulares” ataplace of linguistic purity, suggests thatBorges was well concept, circulares.” seems of “Lasruinas tobethepoint Taken thisway in victoria total deese panteísmo idealista. Laprimera, elrepudio delsolip- engage in dreaming. This inversion of roles ispart of the nature of thecreation dreaming. in engage eleventh volume of AFirst Tlön Encyclopaedia, of thenarrator notes that of thedream worldthecollection. in Borges reverses thesubjectandob- of hismission isnot justtointerpret dreams, hisown orothers, butto originate “Tlön, in Uqbar, OrbisTertius”: thelengthy in discussion of the he istheprojection of anotherman’s dream, one who may himself have acquainted withFerdowsi’s epic. and both his horse and helmet disappeared. Tears were all in eyes, the whole plain literature of theera suggest thatBorges may have adetail from inlaid the story, which may bethefolly of solipsism ornihilism. For thedreamer is sismo…” (Ficciones up, ‘The young prince has escaped the fire!’ He was unscathed, asif he’d ridden though ject in thestorymoreject in thanonce: therole of interpreter of dreams passes water andemerged bone dry, for when Godwills it, herenders fire andwater equally waited, wondering ifhewould re-emerge, andwhen they glimpsed himashoutwent wheeled, urging thefire; hishorse impetuouslyinto tongues of flame enveloped him from theMagus tothereader; andthedreamer that himself comes tofind fiction thatilluminates theabsurdity of solipsism, andasanarticle from the apocryphal encyclopaedia. Alazraki describes the technique as follows: the ultimate solipsist, revelling fantasies fiction, in aboutinterpolating i.e. ofthe abomination mirrors, deflectsfrom thephilosophical of the point fixed on Kavus; men cursed him, their hearts filled with indignation. Then Seyavash nary text oranactual one orboth” (93). harmless….Seyavash appeared before his father andthere was notrace of fire orsmoke been dreamt. The obviouseffect ismise enabyme; thiswhile illustrating Whether Borges’s Magus isof theMedian caste ornot, theobjective 30). The repudiation of solipsism, orthefutility of the Avesta, partsof which have been lostpermanently. The Pâzand, orcom - The of circulares,” same theimplicit holdstrue text “Lasruinas behind the Greek elementsare Borges abundantin through consistent references to de senderos quese bifurcan”: themostevident in missing first page first convergence of Classical Greece andAncientPersia isattheheartof “Las cal traditions atthesame moment: Persian andGreek, elements melding closely associated ancientIndo-Aryan withfire in religion. That thegod cult ismore likely related toworship of Mithra, asMithra isthedeitymost era Magus: Gorgias’s nolonger extant “OnNature of theNon Existent,” was mostlikely syncretized withancientPersian monotheism. That earlier of Yu Tsun’s testimony; second, thebook heldbyastudenton in thetrain, theactsof of bothin character, asingle theMagus. Whereas Classical only traces of which have been quoted byothers, andwhich treats thesub- of the Magus’s dream is called “fuego” underscores thatBorges’s Magus has dreamt of Mithra, notof Ahura Mazda; therefore itcannot be assumed Borges himselfSiete mentions in noches (65-66). understand thataperiod of twenty years ismissing from it, lost over time. lost text isredoubled through itsobviouscounterpart theAvesta, in not source of theShahnamehisnolonger extant. Nor istheMiddle Persian ject of solipsism. Insuchaway thestorydraws from two separate classi - the the important matter isPersian rather thanGreek. circulares,”ruinas sentence: thefirst insistentin “donde elidiomazend the start of of Crete,the Labyrinth theClassical Persian emerges from as dominant that thestory’ssolereligious associations are Zoroastrian, thoughthey the earliestform of Zoroastrianism buttell of anearliercult of fire which temples throughout the former Persian Empire. These are not remnant of no estácontaminado delgriego” (Ficciones 56), which seems tostress that the collectionmentioned in buttheelephantaroom in full of magi. The model of theThousand andOneNights , theHazar Afsaneh , awork that mentaries on the Avesta, are theterm summoned in “Zend.”The original most definitely aremost definitely Persian. Inasmuch as it is necessary the context in of a The underlyingreferences tolosttexts come tothefore “Eljardín in The circular circulares” temples “Lasruinas in recall of fire theruins Borges refers textually toanideacontemporary withhisAchaemenid Annals of TacitusAnnals of . Familiarity withTacitus would allow thereader to El jardín desenderos quesebifurcan. The implicit reference to a
Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories 33 Jay Corwin 34 Almotásim” thefigure in of theTower where theprotagonist takes refuge Persia. Sykes’s work recounts themurder of theimpostormagus, refer- dex, Bardiya” “vide (2: 610). Insuch away Borges may have deliberately Sir Percy Sykes “Hákim in deMerv” isof particular importance because covered thatacharacter named Yu Tsun goes tothehomeof amandarin can,” for example, will have openedThe Dream the Red of Chamber anddis- circulares.” The fires that devour the temples the story may in relate to epic. of Sykes’s monumental undertaking, 1915: publishedin first AHistory of of authors. The discerning of Borges guided byspecialistsorclever enough to have understood it of hishistory(1: 133, 2: 60-62), which reaffirms Borges’s awareness of the and sits in hislibraryand sitsin discussing thefuture withhim, ascene lifted and history. Moreover, Sykes refers to Ferdowsi’s already revealed hisprimarysource of “Hákim information in deMerv.” It and sleeps after aviolentsectarian riot, which during he believes hehas and culture. Itsdoubleistobefound thecenter in of “Elacercamiento a an article of literary fabrication but a marker of Persian history, religion, ancient Persian mythologies aboutgreat fires. Butmore tothepoint, the Parsee community of India: Borges storytostrip aword of all butitsmostancientmeanings, areader repeated Borges’s in story. In the same manner, the passing reference to fire temple which iscentral tothestory of creation isnot outof nothing to himasBardiyaring except for anentryon Smerdis- hisbook’s in in raki, its Persian clearly noting origins and the importance of itamong the tively concurrent withthetimesuggested otherelementsof “Lasruinas in independently will examine clues, theinlaid titlesandnames including is unlikely thatBorges would mention Sykes hadhenotalready read his misdirected hisreader toHerodotus for answers“Tlön” in after having killed anotherman. The tower, ordakhma Persian, in byAlaz isidentified - The earliestexcavated fire temples date totheParthian period, rela- The tower where thestudenttakes shelter isadakhma orTower of Silence, dead. The Parsees (IndianZoroastrians) believe thatwater, fire, andearth and contaminating object—may theearthorcast into not beburiedin are pure andholymustbeprotected, andthusacorpse—the impure those dakhmasand in Zoroastrians Persia in and India dispose of their reader of “Eljardín desenderos quese bifur- in both volumesShahnameh in Ahura Mazda. The god, whose name isfire, only emerges thedream in of These “Elacercamiento” structures in circulares” and“Lasruinas are sym- The sacredness of earthandfire are circulares” evident “Las ruinas in in ciones. Above andbeyond Borges’s symmetrical placement of the dakhma doctrines andfordoctrines secret hostilitytoIslam” (2: 12). This may provide an creation of life) relay tothe reader asymbolismthatisuniquelyPersian. embedded in thetitleof thestory. embedded in answer aboutthelate of inclusion “Elacercamiento aAlmotásim”Fic- in arrested for treachery andembezzlement, thereligious fanaticism of Mo- his protagonists dream. Sykes’s entry on Motasim notes that “[a]lthough he isuninitiatedbecause unaware heisatfirst of hisrole asmagus and scription of Motasim’s sympathetic adherence toZoroastrian doctrines uses boththeTower of Silence andtheFire Temple as theplace where andhistory.spirituality Their respective functions (disposalof thedead, should have known thebasic elements of thereligion hepractices. Andhe like thetemples isnow thecolor of ash. act of Hisfirst veneration isto Zoroastrianism. thetemple Hisincursion into of Fire may determinethat fango,” in the story’s first paragraphfango,” the story’s first in (Ficciones 56). Furthermore, Borges tasim caused himtobetriedandcondemned for Zoroastrian holding the phrases “fango sagrado” and“Lociertoesqueelhombre gris besóel temple, which would suggest thatthemagus isnotgenuine because he the magus andfrom there helearnsthatit ishistask tolight the afire in that thetemple demandsfire after of theYasna, thechanting apossible ther heistheproduct of adream, orthathehascrossed through fire and in juxtapositionin tothefire circulares,” temples of “Lasruinas Sykes’s de- is not identified in thestoryasamagus in untilafteris notidentified hedreams of thegod, indication of imposture if taken to be Zoroastrian; it is more likely another may impress on readers of Borges thatthere isanotherlayer of meaning metrical, antithetical, thestoriestoperiodsof Persian and unify themesin kiss themud, amixture of thetwo holiestelements(water andearth)of point of emphasisthatthetemplepoint belongs toacult of Mithra rather than The magus isgrey, of “Lasruinas” suggesting from thestart thatei- sumed byvultures. (41) a stream, apool, orthesea, normay itbedestroyed byfire. Instead they place thecorpses towers in builtfor thatpurpose where thefleshiscon-
Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories 35 Jay Corwin 36 This work isimplicit aswell apassage in “Tlön, in Uqbar, OrbisTertius.” and One Nights, are Persian names (notArabic), andassume thetales have Mandarin the English countryside. in Yu Tsun recounts his with meeting of theRedof Chamber. Pitting Roman Classicism againsttheChinese, Yu Tsun que se llama Noche la Noches delas se abren secretas deparenlas del siglo xvse hace primera la compilación, yesacompilación procedía detect thatShahriyar andShahrezad, characters themain of theThousand Stephen Albert, hisgrey eyes andbeard, echothegrey of themagus “Las in Stephen Albert, recalling himasamanwho was like Goethe(untilhekills comes amagus viathedream. vious reference toGoethe’sWest-östlicher Diwan (1814-1819), theGerman ences thestoryare in toEuropean andEastAsian cultures. These mirror en inglés ylointegrabanen inglés (Ficciones 1001páginas” 20). The reference to noches, Borges hisunderstanding theorigins clarifies of thework: “Afines Nevertheless itisobviousthatBorges alludes him). When hearrives house they atAlbert’s siton adivan. This isanob- Persian and Arabic layers thework. in Western readers may notinstantly Fire. Borges’s character, otherwords, in andbe- isinitiatedandinstructed lection is“Eljardín desenderos quese bifurcan.” The mostapparent refer- se abrieran, nosentiría loqueen esa tarde sentí. Ellibro estaba redactado references Tacitus totheAnnals of andHung Lu Meng,Dream theChinese the characters, Yu Tsun andStephen Albert, withsubtleornotso the anglophile meets Stephen Albert, thecamp dressed Sinologist asa religions andcultures, asnoted. the1941col The andtitlestoryin - final thecollectionries in refer one way in oranothertoPersia, itslanguages, the rator describeshissensation asfollows: nochesdelIslam “Enunadelas Upon discovery apubbyHerbertAshe, of in thebook leftbehind thenar- tor, aridiculous one. albeit comparison of Albert’s thestory’seponymous circulares,”ruinas andlike themagus, Stephenisalso animpos- Albert the Ghazals of Abbasid Persian poetHafez. The sacerdotal appearance of romantic’s twelve partcollection of poetrycomposed themannerof in no pre-Islamic historyorrelevance Persian toadistinct culture. InSiete novel totheThousand andOneNights further echoesaconnection toPersia. puertas del cieloyesmásdulce elagua en los cántaros; siesas puertas “Tlön, Uqbar, OrbisTertius” gives anindication thatthefollowing sto- Thousand andOneNights isnearlytoo overt toqualifyasanallusion. in thesame sentencesin to “Tlön”: Alazraki and add to the body of knowledge they painstakingly created.Alazraki At thetimeof Borges’s itseems writing unlikely thatsuchaconsideration More contemporary interpretations of thesubject, suchasMac Williams’s, gins with thelayeringgins itstext into of ancientPersian history. Inorder to demand expansion. To bemostprecise, agroundwork for aclearreading 66). We may assume however thatEljardín desenderos quesebifurcan be- de otra, persasegún parece: Hazar afsana, camiento aAlmotásim.” would have entered the writer’s mind. relegation Almond’s of all things and understanding of thePersian Borges’s elementsin storiesalready lay may Albert mirror theassassination of Smerdis theimpostor, Stephen of author’s evidentauthor’s readings, thosehisworks, mentioned in including i.e. history, essentially itstwo periodsof cultural wealth, underscores the Percy Sykes’s Persian toaconvenient pigeon holeof Islamic culture may beresponsible tionably places Borges’s aculture within of Orientalists hisreading of in for hismisinterpreted identity of Tlön (andamisreading of thestoryitself the work of preeminent suchasShaw, scholars Rodríguez Monegal, and tor predates Islam byone thousand years; the storyisaboutimposture, in Alazraki’sin identification of the dakhma, orTower of Silence, “Elacer in - tying yet anotherof thestory’smotifstoonly historical act implied the collection itisbesttostate clearlythatthey manifest bothpre- in and in whichin Tlön asaninvention). isclearly identified Smerdis theimpos- in “Tlön.”in post-Islamic forms. If taken as a repetition of themes, Yu Tsun’s murder murder post-Islamic forms. Iftaken asarepetition ofTsun’s themes, Yu properly envisage these layers of Persian historyandculture embeddedin Along other, more contemporary political lines, IanAlmond ques- The collection’s references tobothpre- andpost-Islamic Persian writer assophisticated asBorges, theimage of Islam asencroaching,- in sidious, malevolent andsomehow apocalyptic imminently still appears to Other, was notabletoavoid Islamic metaphors, mingling allusion and Borges was notabletoescape hisChristian, unconscious fears of Europe’s It may aboutasecret writing bethatin societytakes over theworld, references withhisdescription in of reality’s invasion byTlön. Even for a have had somesway. (93) History of PersiaHistory of . Taken at face value, this may complement Los mil cuentos” (Siete noches 65-
Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories 37 Jay Corwin 38 Aryan cults, theovert use of theterm “mago” ormagus three in of eight Thousand andOneNights determinethattheprimarysources of cultural of Ferdowsialso reinforce of ameh thispoint. The repeated use of theterm Casares, theappearance resulting in of abook thatsubstantiates aquote Indo-European languages andthemythologies linked tothese languages descends toBorges andtousthrough theShahnameh, theepic pennedby vasions butmuchearlier. The magus’s place Persian in literary tradition cling of a phrase from “Hákim de Merv,” a story set in Nishapur, the foot the Nishapur, in set of a phrasecling from “Hákimstory de Merv,”a encyclopaedic entryregarding Uqbarisfalse, intrigue adding toacuri- wealth Eljardín in desenderos quesebifurcan are Persian. The buriedrefer- earlier stories. emphatic devotion Almond’s tocontemporary political is- ous conversation thatBorges notes between himself andAdolfo Bioy ence toHafez’s “Eljardín poetryin de senderos quese bifurcan,” therecy- are alsoIndo-European. Persian withtheArab- historydoesnotbegin in aesthetic. Avestan, Parthian, Scythian, Old Persian, andMedian were all Nishapur’s poem, Ferdowsi thepurest in Persian, reiterated apoint bythedescription of the magus thecollection, in afterapplication itsfirst toSmerdis, suggests that Borges AbbasidPersia storyset in further reinforces thatthecollection’s stated, andwithregard tocultural excavations undertaken byAlazraki, we sues andpostmoderismpredetermine amisreading of Borges’s writings, stories in thecollection,stories in andthereferences thesame collection in tothe religions, evident several in of Borges’s stories, meritfurther attention and the word hasnotbeen removed from itscultural contexts. As thestarting the read thestars, predict thefuture andinterpret thedreams of thekings in reliable andbelievable source of thecharacter:to come who Mobeds the that acareful reader of Borges would recognize from asline one of his not aboutanOrientalist’s fear of Muslim of domination theWest. The may consider that the layers of Persian literature, history, literature and magus’s place circulares.” of origin “Lasruinas in Therein we alsoview a notes “Elacercamiento in aAlmotásim” aboutthetranslation of Attar of predominant historic andcultural foundations are Persian. These points of thesearchpoint “Tlön,” in thequotation lifted directly from an earlier because thequestion heposes isanachronistic andpolitical rather than The careful layering of Persian historyandsubtlereferences toIndo- Shahnameh. Conference theBirds of , andthesubtlenodatShahn- - que sebifurcan. may yield important material for new interpretations of Eljardín desenderos University of Cape Town Jay Corwin
Borges, the Magi and Persian Histories 39 Jay Corwin 40 —. Siete noches.—. Mexico City: Fondo deCultura Económica, 1980. Historia universal dela infamia.—. Vintage Español: New York, 2011. Works cited: Almond, Ian. The New Orientalists: Postmodern Representations Islam from of Alazraki, Jaime. Borges andtheKabbalah . London: Cambridge UP, 1988. Williams, Mac. “Zoroastrian andZurvanite ‘Lasruinas Symbolismin Encyclopaedia Iranica. 2016.