Persian Heritage
Persian Heritage Vol. 25, No. 99 Winter 2020 www.persian-heritage.com FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK 6 Persian Heritage, Inc. 110 Passaic Avenue LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 8 Passaic, NJ 07055 NEWS E-mail: [email protected] Designs by Iranian Architects Win at WA Awards 10 Telephone: (973) 471-4283 Iran’s Strategic Oil Pipeline Project 11 Fax: 973 471 8534 In Commemoration of Alenoush Terian 12 EDITOR SHAHROKH AHKAMI Commentray Is Persian a Homogenous Genetic 13 EDITORIAL BOARD Dr. Mehdi Abusaidi, Shirin Ahkami (D. Rahni) Raiszadeh, Dr. Mahvash Alavi Naini, Mohammad Bagher Alavi, Dr. Talat Coronavirus and the Chemistry of Life 14 Bassari, Mohammad H. Hakami, (N. Tejaratchi) Ardeshir Lotfalian, K. B. Navi, Dr. Kamshad Raiszadeh, Farhang A. Global Warming & California Wildfires 15 Sadeghpour, Mohammad K. Sadigh, M. A. Dowlatshahi. (Yusef Jalali)
MANAGING EDITOR HALLEH NIA REVIEWS By Shahrokh Ahkami
ADVERTISING Believers (M. Grossman & J. Limbert) 17 HALLEH NIA In Search of Integrity 18
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Winter 2020 5 FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
On behalf of myself and all the staff at Persian Heritage American community supported the Republican party. we wish all the Christians around the world and the people They believed that President Trump was going to fight for of Iran, all who have endured the worst hardships in this past the rights of the Iranian people and that a regime change was year, a Merry Christmas and hopefully a better New Year. in the works. They supported the crippling sanctions proposed The year of 2020 was one in which many suffered; students by the Trump administration that destroyed the middle class in were not able to go to school, workers lost their livelihood and Iran, turning them into poor and homeless. They believed the now struggle to put food on the table for their families. The sanctions would cripple the regime and Mullahs. In actuality, closing of businesses added to the number of unemployed. In as can be seen, it devastated and crippled the Iranian people cities which were once alive with people we find the streets and has brought them to their knees. Iranians have always been empty and businesses closed and boarded. So many people blind to the US policy on Cuba since the 1960’s. The crippling have been displaced by this virus and have been forced to sanctions that were placed on the small country empowered, move for employment reasons or a hopeful escape from en- NOT DESTROYED, the Castro regime. Even after his death countering the virus. While there is hope in the launching of the regime was taken over by his brother Raul and then his the vaccines it is likely that they will not come fast enough to successor. All the sanctions did in Cuba was to devastate the separate families from the holiday season. So many families people of the country. Cubans mass migrated to the US and lost loved ones. So many families were only able to visit one have been politically and financially successful, reaching the another through a glass window. So many were not able to highest political positions in the US, and second-generation attend the funerals of those who passed, leaving them empty Cubans have sought out a presidential nomination. and void of closure. Unfortunately the Iranian Diaspora seems to think that if Even our privacy has been encroached by the authori- you do not support the sanctions and that political policy that ties; hidden cameras have been placed all over in the name you support the Mullahs ( a truly ignorant thought process of controlling the virus and yet the numbers of new cases that has caused much destruction, animosity and division in skyrocket each day, with no end in sight. The virus has taken Iranian-American groups, families and friends). This type of a toll on individuals mentally fearing financial disasters. This behavior and thinking, in this political climate, has led to indi- has negatively impacted, family life and in some cases has viduals who stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum led to an increase in domestic violence. to bicker and verbally fight on all the social media venues. In the middle of all of this we had political elections that, This behavior and divisiveness have led to the demise of many as of the time of this writing, December 3, 2020, continues friendships and relationships, by their labeling the other with to be a controversy. The political climate for this election has all sorts of political propaganda of dishonesty. Have we all been escalated and has caused a historical division between gone mad? Do we not all have the same goal for our family Americans. We in the United States are used to an election and friends here and in Iran? Is not our goal to have them be ending on election day. We are used to one side conceding and free, successful, and respected? the country coming together to move on. But this division, It breaks my heart to see highly educated and intellectual that began near the end of President Obama’s second term and Iranians judge and harshly treat other Iranian Americans just continued over President Trumps term is not likely to end. because they support opposing political candidates or party; Normally, even though family members differed in politi- and labeling some as “slaves to the Mullahs.” It astonished cal views during the course of the political campaigns, after the me that they could think this way! How does one dare label a election the results were accepted. Unfortunately, this election group of college professors and doctors “slaves to Mullahs!” has caused permanent damage to family and friend relation- What does this even mean and/or entail? Why can’t we use ships down to parent and children; each are so cemented in our common sense and just be respectful of each other’s their own beliefs and their veracity that they cannot and will political views? Even more astonishing how can we think not listen or consider another’s view point. that these Mullahs are so capable of influencing and hiring This behavior is also seen among Iranian-Americans. individuals in these capacities as spies. They cannot even take During the last elections, a good percentage of the Iranian care of their own scientists and their people let alone have this
6 No. 99 F R O M T H E E D I T O R ’ S D E S K kind of influence over a large portion of the Diaspora. These stay on. Of course, some who labeled and accused the others Mullah’s greatest success is throwing innocent people into who do not think like them, as supporters of the regime were prison and at times executing those who speak against their among the deserters of the chat group, hoping that this will powers! We are giving too much credit to them through the keep their identity from the regime. accusations we make towards each other. In closing I know that my words are heart wrenching but Why can’t we after over forty years of living in a new necessary. We all need to wake up, identify the true enemies home country, let go of our ego’s and learn to be more open and fight them with every available weapon. Whether this minded and respect each other’s opinions? Isn’t it time for all enemy be the virus or regime, neither knows who is poor of us to unify after having lived here, raised our families, our or rich; it knows only the power of its ability to control and children and grandchildren to learn to put away our superfi- destroy. Do not allow this virus, a political view, a political cial pride and come together and hopefully influence a better leader, or a political party destroy or divide family and friend- change for Iran? It is DEFINETLY time to respect each other’s ship. Respect one another’s views enjoy the differences and opinions and agree to disagree on political issues! We can no allow them to develop into compatible seeds of true change. longer allow this behavior to continue the division among the While my words might have been harsh on a lighter end- Diasporas. It is specifically this division that Mullahs thrive ing note, as I said in the beginning of my editorial, I wish all on. We are feeding their motives, and this will continue if we a healthy and happy new year and may all of you wherever keep pointing the finger at each other with useless and non you are enjoy the holidays. You are all beautiful people! sensical accusations. We must stop continuing the empower- ment of a regime that has been in power for over 40 years. One of my student interns at my office insisted that I start a “WhatsApp” group. As soon as the chat went up a few of the group asked me to remove them from the group because they were afraid. They were visiting Iran and did not want to have any issues with the government. Of course, my response to them was “as you wish” anyone who wants or chooses to leave please do so and do not feel pressured by any means to
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Winter 2020 7 L E T T E R S T O E D I T O R MANY THANKS by love and joyful happiness at bringing a tiny innocent soul into Dear Editor: the world, it was such an affirmation that you had done the right Many thanks for sharing such an academic, social and cul- thing. Then the reaction of your family at what you had done, tural journal. Congrats for preparing it. Look forward for more and their pride in your decision, well, no surprises there. I also such initiatives. Warm salaams, sham bathija. shed a few tears. Thanks for forwarding copies of the Fall Issue. I am hon- Mike and Sheila Whitworth ored and will find it interesting and informative regarding Per- sian Heritage. SALAM Mohammad Shafi, Assistant Professor, Dear Editor: Area Study Centre University of Peshawar, Pakistan Thank you so much for sending us the Fall Issue. Each time we are amazed at the quality and breadth of content and the CONGRATS PERSIAN HERITAGE MAGAZINE consistency with which you produce Persian Heritage, and in 2 Dear Editor languages no less!!! Congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the well acclaimed Touraj and Shabnam Persian Heritage Magazine! I write to submit my appreciative words of gratitude for MEMORIES your crisp vision of conceiving Persian Heritage Magazine, Dear Editor: the bilingual Persian Treasure Trove. PHM has since its first Thank you so much. This is wonderful. It brings inaugural print issue 25 years followed by its internet appearance back memories. Just as I had expected back then, you will worldwide, has become one of the few desirable destination for never be without energy, interest, and follow-through. news, history, culture and directions for the future. And, you got even handsomer. Notwithstanding the rather peculiar cynicism by those few Michael Altschuler envious expatriates on the fringes as well as the self-centered organizations or institutions within and beyond our community BUSY AND PRODUCTIVE in diaspora, your persistent foresight persevered and in fact only Dear Editor: flourished throughout. You are the Iron man always busy and productive. Keep No one even with a modest level of gratis contributions the good work. to advancing humanity and community and the toll paid could Mohamad Pourfar claim immunity from myriad financial and in candor, defama- tory remarks by a few Disgruntled on the sidelines. And yet it is YET ANOTHER ISSUE gratifying to recognize how you tactfully led the development Hello Mr Ahkami, and navigation of Persian Heritage Magazine amid moments of Thank you for sharing and congratulations on yet another uncertainty and turbulence forward. issue. Epitomizing, I dare speaking for many avid writers, contribu- Arsi Nami tors and readers of PHM, to state it has and continues touching the hearts of great many of our Iranian Americans and their children AWESOME and spouses not born in Iran, as well as their extended circle of Dear Editor: colleagues and friends. Awesome!!! What accomplished brothers! Congratulations For all that and for your lifelong unwavering commitment to on a great issue as usual!! humanity in upholding health, community and culture, we salute Kamshad Raiszadeh and wish you a very long healthy and happy life. Davood and Fariba Rahni, Somers, NY PERSIAN CULTURE First, let us applaud you and your cadre of by and large APPRECIATION gratis writers and commentators on the 25th commemoration of Dear Editor: the aptly named Persian Heritage Magazine. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. The While I should not as a novice, dare singing to the avid compliments are greatly appreciated, and the well written words readers of PHM or choir conductors of enhancing, conserving explains what I could not adequately verbalize. and showcasing our heritage, nonetheless, allow me to take the I need to tell you that I have received congratulatory phone liberty to share herein my perspectives on our culture: calls and emails from friends and family members since this Any cultural phenomenon along the trajectory of time and publication. Elaheh Khanom called from Mashhad to thank me place and as typified by our very own, many millennia in the mentioning my uncle on driving lessons. making, is a function of a dynamic paradigm of its interactions of its key indicators, not only from within, but also far more شما به راستی بزرگ خاندان و مایه افتخار همه ما هستید. .importantly, in relations to its adjourning cultures from without قربانتان، حسین Simply put, a culture in utter isolation is doomed to become DEEPLY TOUCHED extinct, since it has no “out of the box” manner by which to intro- Dear Editor: spective and when meritorious, to refine and adjust accordingly. I was deeply touched when reading your recent editorial in A small and isolated static pond water, is not ecologically Persian Heritage. I found myself full of empathy for your feel- sustainable and thus prone to evaporations, infestations, and de- ings of trepidation and guilt when sneaking in to the hospital to structions. Also in a chemical synthesis, a product as innocuous care for your patient, and then when those feelings were replaced as aspirin is only optimally effective after it is recrystallized and
8 No. 99 L E T T E R S T O E D I T O R re-purified from several sequential solvents. A culture especially one as historic as Persian/Iranian culture [should] follow the same paradigm to ensure it could self refine itself from the undesirable attributes it has generated from within or without. The subset indicators needing review, refinement, and reformations include among others language, faith, religion, rituals, values, norms, and moral and ethical codes of individual and communal conducts. In so doing, a resilient culture could only gain more strengths and acceptance in the diverse family of Nations and cultures. Davood N Rahni
سالم من عاشق مجله شما هستم. من ایرانی یا مخالف ایرانی دیگری نیستم. اما فارسی میآموزم و زبان، فرهنگ و مردمها را خیلی، خیلی دوست دارم ... برای همه چیز خیلی ممنون. مرسی Best Regards
Salam I am not Iranian. But I love Iranian culture heritage, and especially the Persian (Farsi) language and Iranian people. I have many Persian friends. I usually enjoy your maga- zine. It helps me read, learn more Persian language especially! Merci! - Thank you! William
Winter 2020 9 N E W S DESIGNS BY IRANIAN ARCHITECTS WIN AT football players can do and they must keep progressing. From WA AWARDS the bottom of my heart, I wish the Iranian talented players all Tehran Times, 07/22/20 the best and I hope they shine at the world level,” she added. Farmani is optimistic about her future in the Belgian football, saying “Joining a team from Belgium was a great opportunity for me. I hope I can earn more success in the future. Fortunately, Ali is always encouraging and advising me and it helps me keep moving forward,” Farmani concluded.
ARAT HOSSEINI, ONE TO WATCH Only six plus years old and he is already attracting the atten- Several Iranian architects and interior designers have been tion of the public and perhaps the honored at the 35th edition of the WA Awards, which is organized professional soccer world. Arat by the World Architecture Community. The awards are presented eats, sleeps and dreams of becom- in the two categories of architecture and interior design. “Home”, ing a professional soccer player a project by Mohammad-Hossein Mohammadpur Parchebafi won like his idol Messi. It is a breath the honor in the student architecture projects. of fresh air to see someone so The project based on the childlike imagination of home young have such an athletic gift form is an attempt to provide shelters and temporary housing for and passion. He is so strong that vulnerable groups, especially children, during floods, earthquakes he effortlessly performed 3,000 and other natural disasters. Two designs by Iranian architects were kickups. Because of his talent also honored in the student interior design projects. he has become an internet and A design by Sajjad Navidi for the Shanbeh-Ghazan Metro Instagram sensation. Station in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz is one of the Currently Arat weighs in at winners. The station is located in the historic district of Shanbeh- 44 pounds and stands 3 feet 10 Ghazan. Due to the historic site, the design of the station is of inches tall. He is not shy to show the camera his six-pack abdo- great importance. men. To keep his optimum condition, he follows a diet rich in Seyyed Mohammad-Hossein Rahmati’s design of the protein prepared by his coach and dad. His family remains in lobby of Tehrans’ Dafineh Museum, a showcase for coins and Iran, but he and dad currently live in England. banknotes, was also honored. The WA Awards highlights and recognizes remarkable proj- ects that have the potential to inspire exciting questions about contemporary architectural discourse, the organizers have said. Participants from around the globe, and in particular from regions less covered by general or specialized media, get a chance to share and promote their projects. The designs are selected by the votes of honorary members and winners in earlier editions, and winners are picked through the ratings of the community members.
THERE’S NO LIMIT TO WHAT IRANIAN WOMEN CAN DO: FOOTBALL PLAYER YASAMAN FARMANI Tehran Times, 07/22/20 RCSC Charleroi player Yasaman Farmani says that there is no limit to what the Iranian women football play- ers can accomplish. Farmani joined the Belgian top-flight football club from Iran’s Ma- lavan in August. She is the wife of Iran international player Ali Gholizadeh. They are the first Iranian couple to play at a European based football team. “I started football since I was 12 and joined Iran U14 football team one year later. Since then, I’ve played at all age levels for Iran,” Farmani said in an interview with Iran’s Football Federa- tion’s website. “In my opinion, there is no limit to what the Iranian women
10 No. 99 N E W S IRAN’S STRATEGIC GOREH-JASK OIL PIPE- and have priority, more attention has been paid to the supply of LINE PROJECT NEARING COMPLETION required items and deficits. Delivery of the main pumps needed Tehran Times, 07/22/20 for the launching of this phase is also planned by domestic manu- facturers for late November, Dehqani explained. “Also, in the storage tanks section of Jask terminal, parts of sheets have been made and the welding operations of the tanks have started about one month ago”, the official added. The PEDEC head also referred to the consequences of the outbreak of the coronavirus and said: “In such circumstances, we have always tried to monitor the health and safety protocols to ensure the health of our colleagues.” Goreh-Jask pipeline will transfer one million barrels of heavy and light crude oils per day to Jask oil terminal in the southern Hormozgan province to be exported.
Saffron harvest in Golestan province Vamenan village in Golestan, the northeastern province of Iran is one of the hubs for producing the best saffron in Iran. Many farmers are busy with harvesting saffron flowers at this time of the year. (By: Mahsa Safari)
Iran’s new 1000-kilometer-long Goreh-Jask oil pipeline in the southern Hormozgan province, which will provide the country with an alternative route for crude oil exports that are currently transferred through the Strait of Hormuz, has registered over 60 percent of physical progress and is underway with full force. The project, which is aimed at expanding the oil transport capac- ity in the south of the country to one million barrels a day, was inaugurated in late June by President Hassan Rouhani. Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the project, Presi- dent Rouhani said this project was currently the country’s most strategic project. Rouhani said a total of $300 million has so far been invested in the project while another $800 million to $850 million is needed for its full operation. “We hope that exports from Jask will begin as the govern- ment’s most strategic project by the end of this [calendar] year (March 20, 2021),” the president noted. According to the head of Iran’s Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), considering the current rate of progress in the Goreh-Jask oil pipeline project, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will be able to export its first oil cargo from Jask terminal by the end of the current Iranian calendar year. Touraj Dehqani, who visited the project, held several meet- ings with contractors and project managers and was briefed about the details of the project progress; during these meetings, the official emphasized the completion of the project on schedule. Regarding the overall progress of the project, he said: “The project is being followed up with the aim of completing and launching it before the end of the year, and considering that the project progress has reached about 60 percent, so we focus more on the sectors in which the project operations are facing difficul- ties and need more attention.” According to the official, currently, about 650 kilometers (km) of pipes have been provided to the project site. “It is necessary for pipe manufacturing companies to make extra efforts for timely delivery of the entire length of pipes required for the project within the next three months and send it to the workshop,” he stressed. Regarding the pump houses No. 2 and 4, which are important parts in the first phase of the project
Winter 2020 11 N E W S Mother of Iranian Astronomy: In Commemoration of Alenoush Terian The 100th birth anniversary of the late professor Alenoush Terian, the mother of Iranian astronomy, was celebrated on October 29. Concurrent with World Science Day for Peace and Development, the ceremony took place in Tehran. Setting up the first solar physics ob- servatory, launching the first solar telescope, offering solar physics and astrophysics courses for the first time in the country, and dedicating her house to students are some of the most notable contributions of Terian to the growth of astronomy in Iran. According to the Iranian Physics Association, the book “New Iranian Theater and the Terian Family” will be unveiled at the ceremony. Born in a Christian family in 1920 in Tehran, Terian graduated from the University of Tehran in 1947. She began her career in the physics laboratories at the same university and was elected chief of laboratory opera- tions in the same year. She graduated in 1956 in atmospheric physics from Sorbonne University. She returned to Iran where she became an assistant professor in thermodynamics physics at the University of Tehran. She studied at the solar physics observatory for 4 months through a scholarship from the German government and finally became the first female professor of physics in Iran in 1964. In 1966, she became a member of the geophysics committee of the University Tehran. In 1969, she was finally elected as the chief of the solar physics stud- ies at the university. She began working in the solar observatory of which she was one of the founders. Terian retired in 1979. In 2003, a film was made about her life entitled “Towards the Sun”, in which the life of this first lady professor of stellar physics at the University of Tehran is portrayed. She died on March 6, 2011, and her body was then laid to rest at the cemetery for Iranian Christians in Tehran. (Tehran Times, 07/22/20)
12 No. 99 C O M M E N T A R Y IS PERSIAN A HOMOGENOUS GENETIC and THUS DISTINCT “SUPERIOR RACE”?!
DAVOOD N. RAHNI THE SHORT AND SWEET “ROCK CANDY” ANSWER FROM THIS ORDINARY PERSIAN IS “ABSOLUTELY NOT”!
The Persian people are one of the tral Asia in several rounds. the land of Aryans/gate of civilizations. many diverse ancient peoples from the In fact, retro-genetic archelogy Iranians settled in the Persiate world, extended Iranian (Irano-Indo-European) places the origin of all today’s non- strengthening body and spirit through families, who as roamer-gatherer nomads African peoples to the Mitochondrion legends and mythologies, human-hood spread out from central Asia to northern Y-Haplogroup DNA of a single male re- and empathy, javelin and arrow throwing, India, the Caucasus, Asia Minor and the siding in Uzbekistan (Samarghand and sportsmanship, horseback riding, reach- Persian Plateau between the Caspian Sea Bukhara) of 45,000 years ago. This area ing a balance between family and com- and the Persian Gulf since at least the of south Siberian Urals is coincidentally munity, chess and backgammon play- Neolithic Period (late Stone Age of 10, the same region where the archaic Den- ing, reasons, rationale and logic, truth on 000 years ago). However, this should not isovan Hominins now extinct, resided as facts, and the development of crafts and preclude the strong possibility of earlier well. Denisovans were close cousins to skills toward the betterment of human indigenous peoples in the above vast extinct Neanderthals whose genetic rem- civilizations as whole, has served as the region, as evident by their stone tools, nants is still present for up to a few per- impetus since early Neolithic era of over fossils, and early paintings or carvings cent amongst Europeans. What is most 10,000 years ago. amid the Paleolithic (35,000 BCE-10,000 perplexing is that the historical Sakas and There are multiple archeological BCE) and Mesolithic (10,000-8000 BCE) Iranians (Persians) have no or extremely sites and ample artifacts in museums periods. insignificant Neanderthal genetic traits? worldwide from western Zagros region, The Iranians albeit Persians, have The “Aryan” tribes of Sakas and Lake Rezaieh zone, the Caspian Sea and exchanged genetic haplogorups, alleles Scythians including in particular the Ira- the Caucasus regions and central Asia, and biomarkers with myriad other ethni- nian prehistoric indigenous tribes moved Bactria/Arianna (today’s Afghanistan), cally related peoples. Thus the broader south and west from today’s Central Asia. Burnt City (Share Soukhteh), and Teppe Iranian genetic hereditary that promi- Then in the third millennium BCE, the Sialk Kashan from at least 15-20,000 nently includes Persian, is heteroge- Medians, Persians and Parthians arrived years ago that support the existence of neously complex and ethnically diverse on the Iranian plateau last. rich cultural and technological break- today; nonetheless, Persian or Iranian There remains since a common Per- throughs of Iranians/Persians and their must not be misconstrued as a superior sian family of languages and as derived indigenous brethren. race or egocentric ethnicity even by a from an earlier proto-Irano-Indo-Euro- Thus, not only today’s territory of long stretch of the wildest imagination. It pean language etymologically speaking, Iran in its smallest size but unchanged is noteworthy to cite the Iranian genetic that has since at least 10,000 years ago since 150 years ago, but more important- pool having borrowed from, and given laid the lingual franca foundation for ly the greater historical Iran that spanned back to many other pedigrees, is traceable a unique way of life anchored on Per- from China and India to Eastern Europe, with statistical significance (~x>1%) in sian literati and ethos, gender and ethnic the Caucuses and north Africa, has served more than half the human populations equality, chivalry and ethics, truth and as the crossword of early humans and the (currently up to four billions) worldwide genuineness, and tranquil harmony with fertile grounds for clashes and intermin- today. and respect for Mother Earth. gling amongst tribes, families and civi- There has been much debate about In fact, the term Aryans does not lizations. Accordingly, the culture and the origin and “pure racial” identity of refer to a single racial or ethnic identity genetic make ups of Iranians in the Per- Persians albeit even more aptly Iranians let alone to bogus implication of an ego- sianate world, is rather heterogeneously as a whole. Iranians or their early ances- tistical superiority and fascist ideological complex. tors have roamed or settled from as far ulterior motives and as abused by the To reiterate, it is mythology, legends, back as 35,000 years ago on the current third Reich. Aryanism rather more aptly ethos, music, paintings, stories, poetry Iranian plateau and its surrounding region refers to Iranians and north Indian cul- and prose, psyche, foods, drinks, deserts, of central and west Asia, the Caucasus, tural “noble” characters, thoughts, words, festivals, fruits and vegetables, etc. that Eastern Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor deeds and traits, cited above. binds the Persiante world together and and along the Persian Gulf. Early Iranians According to life philosophy of Ira- not a single distinct homogeneous “non- as the direct descendants of Sakas and nian Aryans, IRAN from AeR, from the existent” genetic superiority! Scythians, have over an extended period early Pahlavi Avestan language, and as Professor Ilber Ortayli Highlights moved south and west from today’s cen- in Aerland=Irelnad in Old Gaelic, means Links between Turkic and Iranian Civi-
Winter 2020 13 C O M M E N T A R Y lizations. He is among a large number Persians and Partians/Elamites of eastern specific genetic biomarker alleles of their of non-Iranians scholars-from Herodotus Mesopotamia, as well crediting the Mus- own, nonetheless, their overall genetic and Xenophon, and Harvard professors as lim Moors and Jews that also included mapping is rather heterogeneously identi- Arthur Pope and Richard Frye who have many Iranian scholars in Andalusia for cal (mainly west Asian/Iran and Middle credited Iranians with advancing human laying the Greek philosophy for Europe. Eastern/ Mesopotamian). The Iranians civilization. By the same token, Iranians provided have given to and taken from others bits It is established that Persian lan- the societal and literati foundations for and pieces of genetic hereditary infor- guage has served toward the evolution Turkey, as well as for the Islamic Caliph- mation. of Altaic Turkish monotone language by ates of Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, The Iranian genetic makeups are ex- its borrowing up to 40% Persian words Cairo, Alhambra and Granada, and India. plained in reading just a couple of find- and syntax. Although amongst investigations to ings and its many linked citations therein. Professor Ortayli further recognizes decode the genetic makeups of diverse These new findings again demonstrate the bureaucratic and administrative roles peoples worldwide, Iranians and Persians that while their original genomics go (Divansalari) of Iranians in the Ottoman have only found recent prominence, the back to millennia, it has footprints from governance, while the army not only in vast genetic information discovered for the Samis (Judaic/Arabs) of Mesopota- Turkey but also in Russia and its vassals, Iranians is startlingly humbling. mia and Asiatic/Mongolian/Turkics of India and Afghanistan or IRAN since the Proliferation of scientific manu- Altaic mountains peoples among other Seljuk was headed and trooped by the scripts support the fact while all people of neighbors or the passersby hunter-gath- Turks, the Tatars or the Cossacks. the above regions in Iran and the neigh- erer-forager who wandered and roamed He traces the school of Athens to boring countries may each possess a few through this historic region. Coronavirus and the Chemistry of Life FROM NASSER TEJARATCHI, M.D. ALL OF US AT In spite of tremendous progress unknown origin. A simple crystalliza- made in Biochemistry, the entity of life tion of lifeless matter can be exempli- PERSIAN remains as elusive as the universe. It fied in the formation of a snowflake, has been said that life is a universe. It which is made of large numbers of is known that the unit of life is DNA; small crystals from pure water in a sub- HERITAGE a complex molecule composed of vari- freezing temperature. How the original ous organic substances and mineral el- units of live RNA and DNA are formed, ements. All living creatures, viruses, no one knows. In recent decades, know We wish you a bacteria, protozoans, yeasts fungi, and then, some researchers have re- plants and animals (including human ported that they have produced living beings) are made of a complex DNA. organisms. However, they have usu- Merry Christmas Strands of attached DNA make the ally reattached DNA molecules which genes; specific bundles of genes make they have obtained from other viruses. Happy Holidays the chromosomes… These artificial genes have shown a A DNA strand is made up of limited function and soon die out. None double strands of RNA. A few known have survived. and viruses, like Coronavirus, are made While in the infinite universe there up of RNA only, which we can call must be innumerable living creatures, a form of “sub-life”. Yet this form of they are all out of contact with each a Healthy, Happy “sub-Life” RNA shows all functions other. Life on earth must have been de- of life: they have a specific form, they veloped here starting billions of years are surrounded by a membrane, they ago. The soul and intelligence are the New Year absorb nutrients from heir medium, outcome of the nervous system which they divide… Viruses are extremely have developed for protection and small. To be visualized, they have to guidance of living organisms. Once a be magnified up to 300 to 400 times living creature dies, so do the soul and by using an ultramicroscopic. Yet this intelligence. extremely small creature has caused As the great Omar Khayyam has havoc to well-developed creatures like said “Beware! Don’t tell anyone this humans. Some scientists consider life horrible secret, the tulip that withered as a peculiar crystallization of matter of will not bloom again!”
14 No. 99 C O M M E N T A R Y
GLOBAL WARMING & CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
YUSEF JALALI, PHD, PE
Climate change may to a record hot September in the epicenter of that tree five times in the last five be defined as the long-term with U.S. climate officials in- mortality. It ran so hot that it years. The biweekly New metamorphosis in the earth’s dicating there’s nearly a two- created a smoke cloud 50,000 York Intelligencer writes in atmospheric weather patterns. to-one chance that 2020 will feet in the sky… Fifty mil- the age of global warming Climate change scientists in- end up as the globe’s hottest lion Americans on the West this phrase has been alienat- vestigate the major factors af- year on record. Coast suffered through weeks ed from its meaning… There fecting the weather patterns In a recent CBS 60 Min- of the worst air quality on the was a time when the phrase on earth. utes program, Wade Crow- planet”. meant, based on historical Thus, the question is foot, head of California’s California State Fire meteorologic data, a storm of begged: In light of recent un- Natural Resources Agency Chief Thom Porter tells the 60 this magnitude could happen precedent wildfires and hur- says “California emerged Minutes program “The largest only once in a span of 500 ricanes, does climate change from a five-year drought in fires were ignited by storms, years… science see a connection with 2016. In that drought, which but because the air is so dry “Climate change will global warming? Herein, we called a mega-drought-- the rain evaporated before it continue, and those records we’ll try to shed some light on hasn’t happened at that level reached the ground… leaving — high temperatures, historic some aspects of this question. in a thousand years. the fire fighters fighting dry rainfall, drought, and wind This year in the largest We experienced com- lightning”. speed and all the rest — will wildfires in California his- munities in California liter- The number of tropical continue to fall. From here, tory, no less than 31 persons, ally running out of water... So storms or hurricanes hitting literally everything that fol- including several fire fighters that’s an existential chal- the United States from the lows, climate-wise, will be lost their lives, 4% of Cali- lenge... We lost over 160 mil- Gulf of Mexico this year, literally unprecedented”. fornia land (4 million acres) lion trees in the Sierra Nevada has already reached 27, more The New York Intelli- was burned to ashes, millions mountain range as a result of than double the usual num- gencer reports “On June 20, of wildlife and thousands of that drought… And where ber. ‘Zeta’, the 27th storm of in the small Siberian town homes were destroyed. California dried out is now the the Atlantic hurricane season of Verkhoyansk, north of the The hottest August in site of the largest single fire in made landfall in Louisiana as Arctic Circle, a heat wave 141 years of recordkeeping state history, called the Creek a Category 2 storm and killed baking the region peaked at registered 130 F in Death Val- Fire… The fire that burned at least 6 people. 38 degrees Celsius — just ley in California. Associated the hottest and most dan- The City of Houston has over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Press reported earth sweltered gerous, the Creek Fire, was been hit by 500-year storms, It was the highest temperature
Winter 2020 15 C O M M E N T A R Y ever recorded in the Arctic. and maintenance of about one million acres of forest and comed by a wide spectrum of In a world without climate 97% of the forest and natural wildland need to be restored, environmental organizations, change, this anomaly, one lands falls on the shoulders of annually. Reduction of for- however, few caveats were Danish meteorologist cal- the Federal government and est wildfires will not only also noted by researchers and culated, would be a 1-in- private owners. However, it’s improve the air quality and experts in the field. 100,000-year event. Thanks noteworthy that half of the public health, but will also In a news article on Sept. to climate change, that year state budget for fuel manage- improve public safety, the 15, 2020, BBC News quotes is now”. In June as a result ment in forests (thinning and rural economy, job creation, Professor Stefan Doerr, a of permafrost melting, an cutting trees) is spent in the quality of natural water re- wildfire expert at Swansea oil-storage facility collapsed, forests owned by the Federal sources, protection of wild- University (Wales, UK) say- releasing 21,000 tons of oil, government! life and biodiversity, and will ing “But the emphasis has about 2/3 the scale of Exxon On August 29 the week- reduce the emission of global been on putting out any fires Valdez spill, into the local ly Grest publication wrote, warming gases. - and with climate change this river. for more than a century, the Finally, in August 2020 has now created a tinderbox However, a major threat policy of the US Forest Ser- the USFS signed an agree- of vegetation. of permafrost melting, which vice has been limited to fire ment with the state of Cali- A combination of drier, contains twice the amount suppression. Jessica Morse, fornia whereby the former hotter and windy conditions is of carbon that exists in the deputy secretary for forest agency agreed to match the the key factor in these recent earth’s atmosphere, is the management at the Califor- activities of California to fires”. commencement of microbial nia Natural Resources Agency clear and restore half a mil- He adds that even in ar- activity and photochemical said “It had the motto of ‘Fires lion acres annually, for 20 eas where there have been at- reactions that would result in out by 10 a.m.,’. years. That restoration would tempts to reduce flammable the release of carbon to the It leaves us with the for- take the form of thinning material in forests, it’s not atmosphere. ests we have today: Overly trees, chipping up downed clear how much difference This positive feedback dense, overly stocked and wood, prescribed burns, and this would have made, “The will in turn expedite the on- burning with high tempera- timber cutting where it makes bottom line remains that the going global warming. tures and destructiveness.” both ecological and economic extreme meteorological con- Today the Guardian of The Native American tribes sense. ditions are the main drivers London reported on the re- effectively prevented huge The agreement was wel- for these extreme fires.” lease of methane gas to the wildfires for centuries, by atmosphere from the melting thinning the trees and setting of frozen methane gas re- up controlled fires in strategic serves within the permafrost locations to create safe zones. on the eastern shores of Si- In the 1980s, the Forest beria within the Arctic circle Service attempted to change under the seabed. The green- course, and began to thin out house effect of methane gas the trees and other fuel to try in the atmosphere is several to contain fires within the times more intense than that confines of the forest. of carbon dioxide. However, the neo-liberal The California Gover- policies of Ronald Reagan nor’s website indicates that was eying another direction, nearly one third of the state is as it viewed investment in the covered by forests and natural public and social programs as lands (about 34 million acres). a deterrent to economic pros- However, only 3% of these perity. LeRoy Westerling, lands are owned by the state who studies wildfire and cli- (1 million ac.). Some 57% (19 mate change at the University million ac.) is owned by the of California, Merced, says Federal government agencies “So for two generations we’ve (US Forest Service, Bureau been underinvesting in ev- of Land Management, & Na- erything … Everywhere you tional Park Service). look you can see the effect: The remaining 40% (14 The roads are sh.., the health million ac.) is owned by pri- system is in shambles, we are vate families and individuals, lagging in clean energy, and the native American tribes, our forests are burning.” and lumber and wood com- There is consensus panies. Therefore, from the among experts that for pub- legal standpoint, the financial lic safety and environmental responsibility for the upkeep protection in California, about
16 No. 99 R E V I E W S lies within facts not disclosed. BELIEVERS This story circles around a woman, a pregnant woman, LOVE AND DEATH NOVEL Nilufar Hartman. In 1979, she went to Tehran to work at the United States Marc Grossman and John Limbert Embassy. What she thought would be the opportunity of a (Mazda Publishers 2020) life time, turned out to be a life changing experience with countless, twists and turns and personal decision making. A Reviewed by Shahrokh Ahkami woman who is to be praised. It would be hard to believe that Nilufar and other fic- tional characters, depicted in the book, were not reflective of personalties both the authors met during their years of service. Their in-depth description of each of these characters and surroundings allows the reader to quickly visualize their physical appearance and emotional process. Each life decision Nilufar makes pushes you to find the answer on the next page. (I would, however, slow down when they described a Persian meal so deliciously you could taste the sour cherry jam and smell the fresh bread.) Most certainly by the time you reach the Epilogue you will have more knowledge of Iran with all its beauty, history, politics, achievement, good decisions, harmful mistakes and the warmth of the Iranian people. You will also be left to wonder if the relationship, once shared by Iran, the United States and the world, will return. Will this beautiful broken puzzle ever be put back together? A PERFECT READ!
l & Educ ra ati ltu on u a C l l, P u a Persian Both authors of this book have enjoyed careers servicing b u l their country. John Limbert worked for thirty -four years in g i c n the United States Foreign Services. As Ambassador, he served a i
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mostly in the Middle East and Islamic Africa. i
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That position was followed with other distinguished as- B
signments. Ambassador Limbert was among the last American n A diplomates to serve at the American Embassy in Tehran. As Heritage a fourteen-month hostage in 1981 he received the Award of Valor. Like Ambassador Limbert, co-author Ambassador Marc To Support Your Persian Heritage Grossman enjoyed a distinguished career as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. This career was also followed Subscribe Now! by unique positions. With their years of personal experience in foreign affairs it is not a surprise that they have written a great novel. & A novel, that is thrilling, historical, intense, riveting and filled with factual detail. If one has only had superficial infor- Place Your Advertisement Here! mation regarding the relationship between the United States and Iran, with little interest to know more, I IMPLORE you Tel: 973 471 4283 to read this book. Too often, the media lures us into believing www.persian-heritage.com their version of a story to be the “truth”, while the real truth
Winter 2020 17 R E V I E W S
In Search of Integrity ChopBook Biography and Memories of Yosef Shahery written and illustrated From Tehran to New York by Michael Jonah Altschuler Researched by Goel Cohen REVIEWED BY SHAHROKH AHKAMI (Sina Research: 2020) REVIEWED BY SHAHROKH AHKAMI When I first re- ceived this book I wasn’t Let us first discuss sure what I was receiv- the author. Mr. Shahery ing. On the cover is a boy emigrated to the U.S. of seven, whose name is from Iran shortly after Finn Altschuler and that the Islamic revolution. picture made me realize As an immigrant, he I was reading something has had a distinctive very special from a very history in assisting the old and dear friend, Mi- immigration of others chael Altschuler. from Iran to the U.S. The prologue of the and was influential in book describes the au- the formation of social, thors outlook on life, one I think we should all consider. cultural and religious “The Light and Dark in our lives is subjective. The institutions for the Ira- middle ground accepts the reality that life is both good nian Jewish communi- and bad, exhilarating and debilitating. This chapbook ty. One of his greatest expresses my acceptance of this duality.” achievements is the publication known as Shofar, of As you make your way through the chapters of which he is Editor in Chief. poems and artful illustrations his words become clearer. This book includes the research of Goel Cohen, It is a tribute to love that grows and changes with time. professor at the University of Tennessee. It is an in- It shows that if we hold onto the qualities of love, that depth biography of the author but more importantly a brought us initially together, that love will always biography that keeps the plight the immigrant in the remain. It is the author’s perception how we as people conversational arena. People immigrate for a variety change with age. What was important becomes less of reasons: persecution, civil rights, a better educa- important only to be of the utmost importance in the tion and a more secure financial future. Regardless end; our friends, our neighbors, our families and our of their reasons for leaving the place of their birth memories. They are what we call on when the puzzle country, biographies of these immigrants are important of our life falls to pieces because they are what puts for future immigrants and the citizens of their new the puzzle together again. country to understand legal rights and the importance The book is the author’s feeling on how we are of assimilation. never sure of who we are, because we are always This biography is particularly interesting as the searching to better ourselves. At some point, however, author discusses his life both in Iran and the U.S. and we realize we knew who and what we were all along where he sees the differences. He emphasizes the im- the journey. And when we recognize and accept this it portance of trustworthiness and loyalty to his life, his brings us great relief. business and his faith. Starting from the first chapter And, the author reflects that as we reach the end you become aware of the deep love and commitment chapters of our life we will always wonder, REGARD- he has on all of these topics. Biographies can have a LESS OF OUR CONTENTMENT AND ACCOM- tendency to be so personal that the story is lost. Mr. PLISHMENTS, WHY WE ARE HERE. Shahery does not do this, instead he tells the reader a I remain truly touched by the author’s words and story in which his personal events enhance the facts illustrations, by his credit to Persian Heritage magazine of his life. and by his friendship.
18 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E
Republishing of the Interview with Mohammad Reza Shajarian The Late Iranian Music Maestro As A Tribute to His Unforgetable Memory
By Shahrokh Ahkami, the Editor of Persian Hertitage Fall 2001
Mohammed Reza Shajarian, a great Iranian treasure, was the master of Persian music and is considered as important as Mr. Pavarotti. Persian Heritage wanted to interview him for a long time and finally was given the opportunity. The Night I interviewed him I will always remember- the night I had dinner with a great Iranian treasure Mr. Mohammad Reza Shajarian and his talented son, and Kyhan Kalhor and Alizadeh. During dinner, I witnessed his love for his son, how he cared and nourished his son who was not feeling well. Though the two are consummate professional partners, what I saw was a father and son relationship and not a Master and his student. Because of the birth of my first grandchild, I was not able to attend his concert. Regretfully a few weeks later I found out that he was ill and has since returned to Iran. As you read this interview, you will find a man who is more than a master of music, he is a man who has a deep love and respect for all things and one who is filled with love, affection, pride and patriotism.
Mr. Shajarian, your music and began to occasionally sing on is very different from the typical classic concerts in San Diego was Mashad Radio. So it was forty to forty music. Audiences are not accustomed to well received by our audience three years ago that I had my first radio it and it may create a question for them, and the press. American program (at that time we had to perform but within a few times of listening you newspapers such as the New live on radio). I arrived in Tehran at the get used to it and enjoy it. York Times and Wall Street age of twenty-five and started to sing on Journal have written lengthy Radio Tehran. There I attended singing Prior to coming to see you, articles about you. Please and music classes taught by masters of some of my colleagues were introduce yourself to us, classical music and song. I worked with asking who is this Persian especially to our youn readers this group of master musicians, even after musician that you want to born out of Iran and our the Revolution. interview? I told them I Non-Iranian readers who are wanted to interview the not familiar with your voice What is the difference Iranian Pavarotti or Placido and music. between now and then? Domingo. You are not only a great singer with a beautiful I was five or six years old when I The participation of master musician voice, you have a great role in started to sing. By the time I was twelve Mr. Alizadeh. He had a special style of the revival of Persian classical everybody in my hometown of Mashad, influence in my music and singing that music. Was this your destiny? Iran knew me. My father was a Master of you can hear in my new song “Winter”. song and singing and gradually I started It is a new work with a s special message. Perhaps. My father forbid music and to learn more and more about Persian I mean to say that even if an entire col- was against me becoming a musician be- music. When I finished high school I was lection of music lacks a message at least cause of the improprieties found in the eighteen. I left home to teach. It was at part of it will have a message. I carry that music world. I am not saying all musi- this time that I started to seriously learn message. This kind of music, however, cians at that time were bad and “unclean
19 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E “., but for the most part the music world proud to listen to their children playing gestures and style of singing. Because was corrupt. For this reason many Iranian the piano, violin, etc. It is so wonderful to my ear was used to this Kurdish style of families, including my father, forbid their compare these times to those when I was singing and music I decided to follow children to become musicians and would a young man. A time when music was a it. When these people would gather for angrily tell them that they could not be- sin and musicians were sinners. music festivals I would go to see them come the fiddler of a dancer!! Despite Anyway, I hope I was a small ele- perform. That period of my youth, the the fact that dance and music are great ment in this change of atmosphere for the land, the people and the compassion for arts and professions, they had been sup- arts. I continue to follow these principles those lives, so deprived were images that pressed in Iran for 1400 years because so when you see my programs and hear repeated in my mind like a film. So in of the way music was interpreted. Young my music you will see humanitarian love short this was the history of my acquain- music lovers like myself were afraid to and mysticism, not dance or finger snap- tance and knowledge with this kind of be blamed, so quietly without my father’s ping. Of course there is music for dance. music. knowledge, I learned the music. I had All kinds of music should be available. I always believed that a person need great respect for him and didn’t want to My music is not the only kind of music not start a job, but when one does start hurt his feelings. that should exist. There must be joyful a job he or she should do it well and Since the age of eighteen I knew that music, music for mourning, music for strive for perfection. Often I have found this was a sacred profession and that I youth, music for all generations and all that many of my favorite musicians have could make a living in it and be respected. kinds of taste and style. spoiled this rustic music because they did So, despite my fears of being accused a not strive for perfection. Their interpre- bad person I pursued this career. I did so If I’m not mistaken in your tations mock these songs and destroyed with love and inner spirituality. In the recent work you connected them. Their interpretations made me un- beginning my father was very unhappy the rustic (peasant) music to comfortable and unhappy and caused me that I left Mashad. All the blame for my classical music, how can you to wonder why they would have done departure to Tehran fell on him. Later, connect these together? such a poor job. This rustic music belongs when he saw how serious I was and how to its creators. Their style of music should hard I worked and studied, he calmed First of all I am from the State of be respected and kept as pure as possible. down. Khorasan. I taught for five years in the Therefore, instruments used in its repro- villages of Ghouchan and Mashad (Kho- duction must be genuine, from the area. What was your goal?! rasan). Every day I listened to Kurdish And, the music itself must maintain the songs and from them I have a lot of mem- same quality and character of the original Unlike many artists, I did not desire ories. There were children in classrooms music. I am very critical of famous artists or expect to reach fame and money over- singing songs and I would encourage when they change and spoil the natural night. I was poor and there were times them. My father was from the same re- beauty of this music. Thankfully I am not when I wasn’t able to pay the rent on my gion where his father was a farmer. They the only artist who feels this way. house. I did receive many invitations to knew a lot of Kurdish peasants and used In the case of Kyhan Kalhor, I recog- play at house parties, bars and nightclubs. to sing songs in their dialect. Because he nized the great job he has done in his mu- In fact one invitation would have paid an was a skilled singer, he could mimic them sic. He has kept the message of the music amount equal to five years of my salary perfectly. Unfortunately, because of his true. For that reason, I accepted to col- that I was receiving from the radio. But strong religious beliefs he later stopped laborate with him. It was about five years these invitations were not what I wanted singing, but when I was growing up my ago that we went to a studio together to and often considered shameful. But, for father would sometimes sing them on his record a song. At first it sounded good, those who accepted such invitations, for- own. I would listen to him and learn his but when I listened to it later, I found that tune and fame came quickly. Mine took longer, not one night stands but one to two years. I knew I had to avoid immoral situations to reach my goal. I knew I had to remain uncorrupt. Perhaps the fact that I avoided the dark side of the profession has encouraged families in Iran to per- suade their children to play some sort of musical instrument and know some kind of art. As an artist I have always tried to bring prestige to the profession. Even today people dressed in reli- gious robes, when they meet me, tell me they want their children to learn to play a musical instrument. Today in the streets of Iran you will see young girls carry- ing their musical instruments to music classes. In the University music students From left: M.R. Shajarian - M.R. Lotfi, the late great Persian musician - eagerly learn music and their parents are Hooshang Ebtehaj (Sayeh), the great contemporary Persian poet
Winter 2020 20 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E it lacked the message I wanted. It lacked not saying that you should suddenly jump the atmosphere found in the original mu- from one step to another step without sic of this region. For over two years I preparation. What I am saying is that thought about this. I knew that in order you should take the risk fully aware of to make this a great piece of music I had its consequences. You should never do to maintain its original atmosphere. So, anything haphazardly. For example, be- I tried a lot to get the dialect of those vil- fore I took on this project, or risk, I had lagers. I needed to have their same tone thought about it for years. When the time of voice. In order to obtain my perfection was right to take the risk, I took it. All in this project I knew it was time that I of the conditions were met. Fortunately, revive all the memories of my childhood all the projects and situations that I have and youth. I practiced and finally I felt approached in this manner have been suc- comfortable. I sang over the music we cessful and have reached a successful previously recorded in Iran. conclusion. We went back to the studio and It is interesting that despite all the fortunately the emotional atmosphere I time I spend with the masters I still desire sought appeared in my mind. I was taken to work with young people. They work on a subject that continues back to the village where I spent some hard when they are encouraged and have to puzzle me. In Iran there is of my youth. Though it took time we more sense of responsibility. In working limited opportunity to excel. finally accomplished our goal. The value with them, after awhile I can see the rate In contrast, the U.S and of the original music was not spoiled. I of their progress. For the most part its Europe provides us with great must state that Mr. Kalhor’s efforts were good. I will work with any young per- freedom and choice. But it valuable and admirable both in this proj- son who I feel has done a good job and has been twenty years since ect and in his efforts in America. He has is bright and dedicated. Young people the Revolution and we still assembled a group of musicians and mu- have new ideas, which allows me the have not been able to have sical instruments that give the same mes- chance to create new work and use their artists like you, Alizadeh, sage heard in the villages of Khorasan creative minds. Kalhor as a household name (near Ghouchan and Mashad). His use in music or the cinema, in of local instruments allows his music to After the Revolution, you USA, why? duplicate its perfume and atmosphere. traveled to the U.S. and Europe. I have seen you in I believe that creativity for the most It is admirable that after three concerts. I feel that you part comes from one’s roots and the soil reaching such a high level have opened a different door that nurtures it. If you do not physically of success as a master in for many artistes living in have your roots in that soil you cannot music, you are still ready to Iran and those abroad, who get proper nutrition. I feel that some of take chances and risks. This have no hope to return back my songs are like mourning songs. They is shown in this new style of to Iran. How does this affect present the pain and miseries of a society. work. Can you address this? you? Some people, when they listen to my mu- sic, cry others do not. When I stay more Anything one does in life has risks. When you are acquainted with than five or six months away from Iran, If you don’t have the guts to take the risk people you are naturally influenced. I find myself losing my connection. For you will never reach the next level. I am It becomes a part of you. Artists who example, twelve years ago I was out of were influenced or touched by society Iran for ten months on tour. One month can easily move forward and take these before my return to Iran, the mayor of Unlike many artists, I did not influences with them. When an artist is Barcelona (Spain) invited me for a con- desire or expect to reach fame in touch with his/her society, they move cert and festival in Barcelona. Twenty and money overnight. I was with it, because they know they are part days before the festival. I suddenly felt of it. These artists in this circumstance, if that I could not sing. I was not the same poor and there were times when they know their job well, can be a leader Shajarian that created those masterpieces. I wasn’t able to pay the rent on of that society in music, cinema, paint- I suddenly felt empty. After ten months my house. I did receive many in- ing, poetry or literature or other profes- away from my problems. I felt I had noth- vitations to play at house parties, sions. But, if they do not stay in touch ing from that soil. I couldn’t feel my en- bars and nightclubs. In fact one with their people and their roots they vironment any longer. I couldn’t feel the invitation would have paid an will have turmoil. We have tried not to pain and I couldn’t touch them anymore. amount equal to five years of my be separated from our people. This will I had called my wife and told her I was prevent us from falling behind. We need coming home. She reminded me that I salary that I was receiving from to feel their pain and be ready to what we had a concert in twenty days and thought the radio. But these invitations can to ease that pain. I was crazy. She told me not to come, not were not what I wanted and of- to go through unnecessary expenses. For ten considered shameful. When I interview talents like me the price of a round trip ticket is a lot you I like to get their opinion of money, but I really felt I would not be
Winter 2020 21 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E tations I have had with Iranians abroad. without the national anthem I believe that creativity for the Too often they believe that anyone who The national anthem has a great most part comes from one’s roots comes from Iran is connected to the Is- respect and value and is not suitable and the soil that nurtures it. If lamic Republic, and is their agent. They for concerts and movie theaters. They you do not physically have your treat them unfairly. They become vic- play the anthem at international games, roots in that soil you cannot get tims and are punished for something they when they want to give a gold medal to never did or said. All they have done was a champion. proper nutrition. I feel that some to try and protect the arts. I believe this After my explanation, he told me of my songs are like mourning labeling is unfair and I don’t know why that he was sorry and that I was right. Af- songs. They present the pain these people think this way, this is very ter this incident we became good friends. and miseries of a society. Some sad. This automatic labeling is not right. This was both a good and bad memory people, when they listen to my To attach us to one political party or an- for me. Bad, because he made us nervous, music, cry others do not. other, when all we desire is to preserve but good because I convinced him that our art, is very unfair. As for a favorite you cannot play the National Anthem at memory, it comes from inside Iran. It is a concert. related to the pressures that were put on able to perform. I told her I had to return. me, and the efforts that I had to make to My last question s about the When I returned to Iran, I once again eliminate them. future of Iranian music? came in touch with my problems. My pain and suffering became visible again: When did this occur? The Iranian people never should be I was able to touch them. I was able to worried about their music. You cannot return to Spain and give the concert. I think it was seven years ago. We stop a weed from growing on a farm. And Some of our good artists, who have in that sense you cannot stop music. Who lived for many years abroad, cannot in- can stop a nation’s music? You can cut fluence an Iranian audience, because they the flowers, but these flowers are culti- cannot transfer their feeling and create vated inside the soil. Whatever is inside that atmosphere of the natural soil. Those a nation, you cannot cut and eliminate. who can identify with this problem and Music and art are inside of Iranians and return to Iran will better transfer this at- the country. Every day it gets stronger. It mosphere to their audience. It is as if we is spreading and bringing new artists. The get slapped back to reality. Our roots get quality of their work is also improving. nutrients from that soil. We are then able In the next ten to fifteen years you will to offer our Iranian art and get back in see many young artists emerges. touch with the people. This is true, it is not in our imagination. An now I ask if you have a As I stated that trip of twelve years closing comment? ago left me empty. I thought I couldn’t sing. It wasn’t that I forgot how to sing No, I wish the best for all the people or that my voice was harmed, I had just in the world. I hope that Iranian hearts lost the stimulus and atmosphere to sing. had a concert, and my brother was the continue to beat for Iran and for all hu- This explains the deficiency of Irani- manager of the program. One hour be- manity. They must know that the gifts of ans in music and the cinema. The battery fore the concert my brother came with our heritage cannot be taken away. of these artists who have lived abroad a tape of the Islamic Republic National is empty. They must come back home Anthem. He told me that we must play and allow their roots to be watered and it before the concert. I told him I would charged with events that are going on in not allow it. An officer heard my response Iran today. Without seeing it first hand, and came in to the rehearsal room. He The Iranian people never should they cannot understand this. I am not told me that this was an order and that he be worried about their music. saying that they do not experience pain was in charge to carry out the order. He You cannot stop a weed from living abroad, but it is a different pain, it threatened my arrest if I did not do this. growing on a farm. And in that is the pain from being away from home, I was angered by his words and I told sense you cannot stop music. not the same pain felt by the people liv- him he was in charge of himself, but not Who can stop a nation’s music? ing in Iran. in charge of my concert. I told him that I was the musician and I would indicated You can cut the flowers, but In concluding this interview, what was played at this concert and if these flowers are cultivated in- can you tell us about your he wanted to arrest me to do it then and side the soil. Whatever is inside a most and least favorite memo- not wait until after the concert. He told nation, you cannot cut and elimi- ries? me “No I would not arrest you NOW!” nate. Music and art are inside of this time another agent came. I told him Iranians and the country. Every I have many memories. One of my there would be no national anthem at this day it gets stronger. worse, however, deals with the confron- concert. He allowed us to start the concert
22 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E was taken away by Mark Antony’s soldiers who smashed it and shared the fragments among themselves. Acilisene, being the cult’s main center in Armenia, came to be known as Anaetica, i.e., the land of Anaïtis. Another region lying on the Cyrus river, near the borders of Iberia and Albania, was also called “the land of Anaitis”, like Acilisene, it was doubtless the territory of a temple dedicated to Anāhitā but other- wise unknown. The kings of Armenia were steadfast supporters of the cult at Eriza, which seems to have been closely associ- ANĀHĪD: ated with the national monarchy. Tiridates III, before his conversion to Christianity, The Cult and Its Diffusion prayed officially to the triad Aramazd- Anahit-Vahagn but is said to have shown M. L. CHAUMONT a special devotion to “the great lady Anahit Encyclopedia Iranica on December 15, 1989 . . . the benefactress of the whole human Statue of Anahita in Maragheh, in Iran’s east Azarbaijan province race, mother of all knowledge, daughter of the great Aramazd”. According to Greek version of the Book of Agathangelos, tra- Although the Greeks sometimes as- Hypaipa, Maeonia, and elsewhere; the dition required the kings to travel annually similated Anāhitā to Aphrodite or Athena, temple at Hierocaesarea had reputedly been to Eriza on the occasion of the goddess’s they most often viewed her as the Persian founded by Cyrus. From the 2nd century festival. Artemis. She is not named in the Elamite A.D. there is an account of the ceremonies Tiridates accordingly made this pil- texts found at Persepolis and dating from performed in accordance with ancient Maz- grimage and offered sacrifices as well as the reigns of Darius I and Xerxes. In 405 daean ritual at Hypaipa and Hierocaesarea, wreaths and boughs to Anāhīd (Anahit) B.C., the year of the accession of Artax- as personally witnessed by the geographer in the first year of his reign. Anāhīd was erxes II Mnemon, there was a temple at Pausanias. At Zela in Pontus the goddess also worshiped at the capital, Artashat Pasargadae in Persis dedicated to a war- was venerated together with two associate (Artaxata), at Astishat, in Taron (south of rior goddess who, according to Plutarch, gods, Omanos and Anadates; in Cappado- Armenia) and at many other places. At could be compared with Athena; no doubt cia, likewise she and Omanos had com- Artashat, her temple was close to that of it was a temple of Anāhitā in one of her mon altars. At Castabala she was named Tiur (Tīr), the oracular god assimilated most important aspects. The fact that Ar- Artemis Perasia. In connection with the cult to Apollo. At Ashtishat, one of the main taxerxes II Mnemon (404-359 B.C.) re- of Artemis/Anaïtis, Hellenic-style games centers of Armenian paganism associated ceived consecration in the kingship at this were held at places such as the Anaeiteia at with the god Vahagn (Verethragna) and the temple after he had donned the robe of Philadelphia, the Artemisia at Hypaipa, and goddess Astlik, she was worshiped in the Cyrus (Plutarch, loc. cit.), suggests that the Sakaia at Zela. The fact that bulls were guise of a golden idol apparently known the Achaemenid monarchy had close links the animals sacrificed to Anaïtis probably as oskimayr “the golden mother”. Another with Anāhitā, especially in her war-god- explains why in Lydia, Cappadocia, and center of Anāhitā’s worship was the city dess aspect. Moreover, Mnemon was the Armenia she was assimilated to Artemis of Tomisa on the Euphrates in Sophene first Achaemenid to insert the names of Tauropola or Taurica. It was through this (south-west Armenia) on the Cappadocian Anāhitā and Mithra, after that of Ahura channel that the taurobolium (bull-sacrifice frontier. In 69 B.C., the soldiers of Lucullus Mazdā, in official documents. According ritual) spread to Europe. could see in the territory of Tomisa plenty to a passage from the Chaldaica of Berosus The Armenians, according to Strabo, of sacrificial cows roaming around freely, conserved by Clement of Alexandria, the shared in the religion of the Persians and which were consecrated to Persia Artemis same king caused statues of “Aphrodite the Medes and particularly honored Anaïtis. and bore on the head the brand of her in the Anaitis” to be erected in major cities of his From the 1st century A.D. onward, a temple shape of a torch (Plutarch Lucullus 24.6). empire such as Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, of this goddess at Eriza (Erez) in Acilisene After the conversion of Tiridates, the im- Persepolis, Bactra, Damascus, and Sardis. enjoyed great fame; an unverifiable tradi- ages of Anahit throughout Armenia were Plutarch also states that Artaxerxes Mne- tion ascribed its foundation to Tigranes the smashed. mon piously made his concubine Aspasia Great. This holy place, “the wealthiest and Regarding the Caucasian countries ad- become a priestess of “Artemis whom they most venerable in Armenia”, was staffed jacent to Armenia, Strabo states that there call Anaitis.” It was probably in his reign with priests and priestesses; daughters of was a temple dedicated to Leucothea, obvi- that the Anāhitā cult began to gain ground the most eminent families were required to ously, an analogue of the Iranian goddess in Asia Minor and Syria before spreading serve as prostitutes in it before marrying, an in the land of the Moschi in Colchis. The to Armenia. element likely borrowed from the Semitic legendary and late-dated Life of the Apostle The cult long flourished in Lydia, religious practices. Anaïtis was worshipped St. Andrew mentions a cult of Apollo and which had temples of the Persian Artemis at Eriza in the guise of a huge gold image. Artemis, that is, Mithra and Anāhitā, in the at Sardis, Philadelphia, Hierocaesarea, In 34 B.C. (rather than 36 B.C.) this idol same region. On the other hand, there is
Winter 2020 23 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E no evidence of Anāhitā worship in Iberia, (master of ceremonies) and supreme head thought to appear on an Achaemenid cyl- a country that had close ties with Arme- of the fire of Anāhīd, [that] of Anāhīd- inder seal, on some reliefs from the Parthian nia and Iran. In Albania, the moon stood Ardašīr, and the lady Anāhīd” (inscrip- period, and on two ossuaries, one found highest among three popular deities and tion of Kirdēr, Kaʿba-ye Zardošt, line 8). near Bīšāpūr, the other Sogdian (Anāhīd was worshiped in a famous temple with Kirdēr’s promotion is to be seen as an overt may be represented by figures to be seen a large staff of priests at a place near the encroachment on the spiritual authority of on Sasanian silver utensils, which depict Iberian frontier; some have tried to identify the descendants of Ardašīr. In the inscrip- a nude or scantily clad woman standing her with Anāhitā, but this is questionable. tion at Paikuli carved for Narseh in 283, in front of an arcade holding a flower or In Parthian territory, Ecbatana, the the king of the kings invokes Ōhrmazd, some fruit or sometimes a bird or a child; greatest metropolis of Media, retained a “the lady Anāhīd,” and all the gods. On a the identification seems convincing. It has temple of Anāhitā where sacrifices were rock carving at Naqš-e Rostam, Narseh is been suggested that the colonnaded or ser- regularly offered in Lower Media a temple shown receiving investiture from the hands rated crowns on Sasanian coins belong to of “Artemis,” built about 200 B.C., was of Anāhīd, who wears a serrated crown and Anāhīd. standing when Isidore of Charax (ibid.) a sleeveless cloak. It is difficult to tell whether Anāhitā wrote, and some vestiges of this Greek- Šāpūr II, according to a Christian had any connection with Nanā or Nanai, a style edifice survive today. Isidore men- hagiographic text, caused the heads of goddess of Mesopotamian origin frequent- tions two more temples of this goddess, twelve Christian martyrs to be exposed, ly mentioned in Babylonian and Assyrian both on the right bank of the Euphrates in in conformity with ancient custom, in the texts. In Armenia, Nana was assimilated to Mesopotamia, one at Basileia reputedly temple at Eṣṭaḵr. It has been suggested that Athena and worshiped in a temple at the founded by Darius, the other at Beonan. a passage in the Pahlavi Dēnkard refers small town of Thil, but in some countries, Susa likewise had a place of worship to the construction of a temple of Anāhīd she was identified with Artemis. At Dura- that, in the words of Pliny was Dianae tem- by Šāpūr II, but the text has ābān-ḵāna Europos she was worshiped as Artemis Na- plum augustissimum. Not far away was a (house of the waters), and the interpreta- naia. It is known from Kushan coins with temple in Elymais called Ta Azara, which tion is questionable. No further evidence on effigies of Nana that her cult spread as far was sacred to both Athena and Artemis the Sasanian monarchy’s association with as the Kushan territories. In the Sasanian tame lions were to be seen in it. In Persis, Anāhīd comes until the reign of Ḵosrow period, she is said to have been worshiped the cult was centered in Eṣṭaḵr (Persepo- II Parvēz. In an investiture scene carved in in Mesene, Susiana, Babylonia, and Ar- lis), where Anāhitā was worshiped in her high relief in the grotto of Ṭāq-e Bostān, bayestan. Nana, who is one with Ishtar in aspect of war-goddess, as she had been at Ḵosrow II receives crowns from Ōhrmazd ancient texts, seems to have been both a Pasargadae in the Achaemenid period (see and Anāhīd; the goddess wears a crown war-goddess and a nature-goddess. There above). Around the end of the 2nd century similar to Ōhrmazd’s and holds a pitcher are grounds to suppose that at an early A.D., the temple of Anāhitā at Eṣṭaḵr was of flowing water in her left hand. stage the Iranian Anāhitā acquired some of in the custodianship of Sāsān, who was She also appears, holding a garland of Nana’s attributes, in particular her warlike also a hunter and an intrepid warrior. His flowers in one hand and a lotus in the other, character. It would be rash, however, to see son Pāpak killed the king of Eṣṭaḵr and on one of the capitals of the two columns Anāhīd in Nanai, “the great goddess of the seized the throne. It seems probable that that once stood in front of the grotto. The whole earth,” who, according to the Acts Pāpak continued to be the high priest af- statement of Ṭabarī that the last Sasanian of Mār Moʿayn, was one of the principal ter he made himself king, because a rock king, Yazdgerd III, was crowned in the deities worshiped by Šāpūr II. Also dubious carving shows him making an officiant’s “temple of Ardašīr” at Eṣṭaḵr is interesting is Hoffmann’s statement that the Nana on obeisance before a fire altar while wearing because of the similarity of this name to that the Kushan coins denotes Anāhitā. a crown and holding a sort of scepter in his of the “temple of Anāhīd-Ardašīr” at Eṣṭaḵr left hand, with his son Šāpūr on horseback mentioned in the inscription of Kirdēr. close by him. Because the temples of Anāhīd were Pāpak’s son Ardašīr rebelled against built beside springs or watercourses, it has his Arsacid suzerain and gradually con- been suggested that they were quite differ- quered all the Parthian territories. He may ent from ordinary fire temples and had a perhaps have inherited the high priesthood distinct style of architecture characterized of Anāhīd and have derived his spiritual by columns and arcades. But there is no authority mainly from it; in any case, he reason why, at least in Iran, Anāhīd wor- showed great devotion to the goddess, to ship should not have been performed in fire whom he sent heads of his slain enemies. temples. The designation of the temple at As for Ardašīr’s son and successor, Šāpūr Eṣṭaḵr by the term ādur (fire), which was I, the fact that he named his daughter Ādur- applied to all Zoroastrian places of worship, Anāhīd (Anāhīd of the fire) is certainly seems significant in this respect. Equally significant. In the reign of Bahrām II, the rash are suggestions that particular temples, ambitious Magian Kirdēr, who had been for example the one at Taḵt-e Solaymān, steadily rising in the religious hierarchy belonged to Anāhīd. and tightening his political grip, reached Aside from the rock carvings of the zenith of his power when the monarch Naqš-e Rostam and Ṭāq-e Bostān, few appointed him chief mōbad and judge of figures unquestionably representing the the empire and at the same time “ēwēnbad goddess are known (see below). She is Vase dancers, Reshy, Louvre
24 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E
Persian Heritage Magazine in McGill Library
مدونة مكتبة الدراسات االسالمية في جامعة مكغيل Resources for Islamic Studies
Posted on March 6, 2020 by Ghazaleh Ghanavizchian
Persian Heritage Magazine is an independent, non-political, non-governmental publica- tion first published in 1996 by Shahrokh Ahkami, the Editor. Persian heritage is a quarterly publishing magazine about culture and history of Iran. It is trying to respond to its readers’ need -Iranian outside of Iran- by keeping them in- formed with update informa- tion on the richness and di- versity of Iranian culture and heritage, as well as to facilitate inter-cultural interaction by reaching to those non-Persians yet interested in Persian heri- tage. Therefore every issue of the magazine is being published in Farsi and English and covers various topics from Arts and culture (miniature, poetry,etc.) to prehistoric findings in Iran as well as reviewing recent exhibition in or about Iran’s history and culture.
Winter 2020 25 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E was a concubine of the Former zhou (Canton), some of them IRANIANS IN CHINA Shu Chinese Emperor Wang in the tenth century like Mei Zongyan, and a brother older Zhu in the harem of the Em- than both of them named Li peror Liu Chang, and in the From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Xun. They lived at the court twelfth century large numbers of the royal family of For- of Persian women lived there, mer Shu in Chengdu (modern noted for wearing multiple ear- day Sichuan). Li Shunxian rings and “quarrelsome dispo- also was a poet. Their family sitions”. It was recorded that had come to China in 880 and “The Po- ssu-fu at Kuang-chou were a wealthy merchant fam- make holes all round their ears. ily. Li Xian dealt with Daoist There are some who wear more alchemy, perfumes and drugs. than twenty ear-rings.” De- The Huang Chao rebel- scriptions of the sexual activi- lion had earlier made their fam- ties between Liu Chang and ily flee. Li Su-sha, an Iranian the Persian woman in the Song who dealt in the incense trade, dynasty book the “Ch’ing-i-lu” is speculated to be the grandfa- by T’ao Ku were so graphic ther of the three siblings. that the “Memoirs of the Re- Lo Hsiang- Lin wrote a search Department of the Toyo biography of the three sib- Bunko (the Oriental Library), lings. The family were Nesto- Issue 2” refused to provide any Mihran Sitad selects bride for the Persian king rian Christians. The two quotes from it while discussing brothers then became Daoist. the subject. Liu had free time Li Xun was also a poet who with the Persian women by Iranian people such FIVE DYNASTIES wrote in the manner of Chi- delegating the task of govern- as Persians and Sogdians have AND TEN nese Song poetry. Li Xian used ing to others. Multiple women lived in China throughout vari- KINGDOMS PERIOD urine to concoct “steroid sex originating from the Persian ous periods in Chinese history. During the Five Dynas- hormones”. Gulf lived in Guangzhou’s The Parthian Irani- ties and Ten Kingdoms peri- Iranians dominated the foreign quarter, they were all ans, An Shigao and An Xuan, od (Wudai) (907–960), there drug trade in China. In 824 Li called “Persian women” (Po- introduced Buddhism to are examples of Chinese Susha presented to Emperor ssu-fu or Bosifu). China. A village dating back emperors marrying Persian Jingzong, the Chen xiang ting Some scholars did not 600 years in Yangzhou in Ji- women. “In the times of Wu- zi, a type of drug. differentiate between Persian angsu province, China, has dai (907–960) the emperors Li Xun wrote poems in and Arab, and some say that inhabitants descended from preferred to marry Persian the tz’u style and was one of the Chinese called all women Iranians. It has 27,000 people women, and the Song dynasty its masters. He and his broth- coming from the Persian Gulf and contains Iranian places official families liked to marry er Li Xian traded in the drug “Persian Women”. names like Fars and Parsian. women from Dashi [Arabia]” business. The family lived The young Chinese Em- Sassanian royals was written by Chen Yuan. in Sichuan. peror Liu Chang of the South- like Peroz III and his son Nar- Li Xun was known for ern Han dynasty had a harem, sieh fled the Arab Islamic inva- FORMER SHU his poetry. He was the author including one Persian girl he sion of Sassanid Persia for safe- Many Iranians took the of Hai Yao Ben Cao. He and nicknamed Mei Zhu, which ty in Tang dynasty China where Chinese name Li to use as their his brother Li Xian were well means “Beautiful Pearl”. Liu they were granted asylum. last name when they moved to known perfume merchants who liked the Persian girl (Mei Zhu) The Chinese pirate Feng China. One prominent family lived in the 900s AD. They because of her tan skin color, Ruofang stored Persian slaves included Li Xian (pharmacol- lived at the state of Shu’s court. described in French as “peau on Hainan whom he captured ogist) and Li Xun. Sources say Li Xun and Li Xian were mate” (olive or light brown when raiding ships in the 8th that either one of them was re- two brothers from an Iranian skinned). He and the Persian century. Hainan was filled sponsible for writing the “Hai family who lived in Shu in girl also liked to forced young with Persian slaves by Feng Yao Ben Cao” (Hai yao pen Sichuan. the author of the Hai couples to go naked and played from his raids on their ship- ts’ao), translating to “Pharma- Yao Pen Tshao was Li Xun with them in the palace. and ping. Persians sought a hard- copoeia of foreign drugs”. Li while the “alchemist” “natu- he favored her by “doting” on wood grown in Guangdong Xun was interested in foreign ralist” and “chess master” Li her. During the first year of his province. In 758 there was a drugs and his book, The Hai- Xian wrote poetry like his reign, he was not over sixteen raid on Canton by Persians and yao Bencao, was all about brother. years old when he had a taste Arabs and then there was an at- foreign drugs. His family sold for intercourse with Persian tack in 760 in Yangzhou upon drugs for a living. SOUTHERN HAN girls. The Persian girl was Persians and Arabs. On Hain- Li Xian had an older From the tenth to twelfth called a “princess”. an 100 katis of incense were sister Li Shunxian, who was century, Persian women Descriptions of the sexual burned in a single go by Feng. known for being beautiful and were to be found in Guang- activities between Liu Chang
26 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E and the Persian woman in from the family genealogy by the Song dynasty book the his relatives who were angry “Ch’ing-i-lu” by T’ao Ku were at him for converting to Islam Discovery of 3000-Years Old Board-Games so graphic that the “Memoirs and marrying a Persian girl CAIS (Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies) venue hosted of the Research Department of because xenophobic feeling the Toyo Bunko (the Oriental against foreigners was strong by Shapour Suren-Pahlavi Library), Issue 2” refused to at that time due to Persian An ancient four-point- provide any quotes from it Semu atrocities in the Ispah ed compass-rose showing while discussing the sub- Rebellion in which the Yuan directions of ‘four cardi- ject. Liu had free time with the defeated the Ispah and the nal points’ and a number Persian women by delegating Semu were massacred. The of board-games carved on the task of governing to others. branch of the family who rocks discovered in the The Wu Tai Shï says that held to their Chinese customs Iranian island of Kharg in ‘Liu Ch’ang, Emperor of the felt ashamed so they changed the Persian Gulf, reported Southern Han dynasty reign- their surname from Lin to Li Persian service of CHN on ing at Canton, about A.D. 970. to avoid associating with their Saturday. The discovery was “was dallying with his palace relatives, Lin Nu’s descen- made by Shahram Eslami, a local and a member of Kharg’s girls and Persian women in the dants with his Persian wife Friends of Cultural Heritage. The relics were studied and inner apartments, and left the who practiced Islam. their ancient origins identified by Reza Moradi Ghiasabadi, government of his state to the who made the following observations: ministers.” The History of the TANG DYNASTY “The engravings are between 2000 and 3000 years old. Five Dynasties (Wu Tai Shih) Sogdians in China used The first discovered carving is located beside an ancient road stated that- “Liu Chang then 9 Chinese surnames after the which is a four-pointed compass-rose showing directions with his court- ladies and Po- Chinese name of the states of four cardinal points within a square-shape with rounded ssu woman, indulged in amo- they came from. angles setting, 50x50cm in diameters. Some sections of the rous affiurs in the harem”. Xizhou had a Han and compass-rose have been damaged, apparently as the result Sogdian population. A record of a cracks in the rock… the compass-rose’s lines have SONG DYNASTY from the Astana Cemetery dat- been placed in a position to determine the cardinal points, Guangzhou (Canton) had ing to 639 preserves the trans- which have only two degrees of error based on the Global a community which included action where a Sogdian slave Positioning System (GPS)… This is a unique discovery Persian women in the 10th- girl was being sold in Xizhou. and a great deal of efforts and resources should be made 12th centuries, found in Liu The Han Zhang family also available to safeguard the relic. Also we must not remove Chang’s harem in the 10th cen- owned Chunxiang, a Turk it from its original place…” tury and in Song dynasty era slave woman in Xizhou. He The remaining carvings which are board-games were Guangzhou in the 12th century Deli, a Sogdian who knew how discovered in the northwest of the island. The board-games the Persian women there were to speak Turkic and Chinese are in a mixture of circular and oblong shape settings, in observed wearing many ear- and translated. various diameters, some 4cm and some in 10cm in circum- rings. 120 coins of silver were ference (see the picture). All these carvings engraved over The Muslim women in paid for the slave girl from the rocky-ground’s flat surfaces. These are located on the Guangzhou were called either Samarkand. The contract was hinterland at the top of the cliff overlooking the waters of Persian women or Pusaman written in Sogdian. Translated the Persian Gulf. These game-boards have been carved on according to Zhu Yu (author)’s by Yoshida Yutaka. The slave the rocks in various settings, which Ghiasabadi have man- book “Pingzhou ke tan” which girl was from the Chuyakk aged to identify seven of them. Some of them could be a may be from “Mussulman” or family and born in Central proto-type for backgammon. “Bussulman” which means Asia. Upach was her name and The Persian Gulf’s Iranian island of Kharg is situated at Muslim in Persian. Pusaman the buyer’s name was written about 30 km northwest of Bandar-e Rig and 52 km northwest was also the name of a tune as Yansyan in Sogdian from of Bushehr. It is the larger and more southerly of two islands about female dancers sent as the Chan family. The seller (the other being Khargu). Kharg (also Khark) is about 8 tribute to China. of the slave was from Samar- km long and, at its widest point, 4 km across. The interior qand called Wakhushuvirt is hilly, terminating in cliffs at the northern and southern MING DYNASTY and his father was Tudhakk. ends of the island. Of the Han Chinese Li The contract said they could Archaeologists have always believed the oldest settle- family in Quanzhou, Lin Nu, they anything they wanted ment on the island dates back to Parthian dynastic era (248 the son of Li Lu, visited Hor- to Upach, give her away, sell BCE-224 CE), but as the result of a discovery in November muz in Persia in 1376, married her, abuse her, beat her and she 2007 history of the island was re-written, as the archaeolo- a Persian or an Arab girl, and belonged to Yansyan’s fam- gists have discovered an inscription executed in Old-Per- brought her back to Quan- ily forever. Zhang Yanxiang, sian cuneiform, dated to the Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 zhou. Li Nu was the ances- whose name is found in Chi- BCE). Since its discovery, the rock-inscription has been tor of the Ming Dynasty re- nese language documents in left unprotected in its original place at the mercy of looters, former Li Chih. Lin Nu and Turfan, is believed to be Chan vandals, and harsh weather. his descendants were erased Yansyan.
Winter 2020 27 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E bustard Chlamydotis undulata, cream- colored courser Cursorius cursor, spot- BIRDS IN IRAN ted and coronated sandgrouse Pterocles senegallus and P. coronatus, desert and part 0ne bartailed desert lark Ammomanes deser- ti and A. cincturus, hoopoe lark Alaemon (Encyclopedia Iranica) alaudipes, desert warbler Sylvia nana, desert wheatear Oenanthe deserti, hood- ed wheatear O. monacha, and trumpeter Iran, while 19 are typically Eastern Pale- finch Rhodopechys githaginea. Although arctic species, reaching the westernmost Iran possesses no true endemic species, tip of their ranges in Iran. A further 25 one species, Pleske’s ground jay Podoces species are characteristic of the great Sa- pleskei, which occurs widely in the des- haro-Sindian desert belt which stretches erts of central and eastern Iran, is almost along the southern edge of the Palearctic confined to the country, and is known region from North Africa through the elsewhere only from extreme western Middle East to Mongolia, while another Pakistan. 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE 24 are Palearctic species with restricted Semiarid steppe of the desert rim and IRANIAN BIRD FAUNA ranges in the Middle East. The bird fauna foothills. Much of Iran’s land surface, ly- Despite the fact that large portions of of southern Persian Baluchistan and the ing between 1,500 and 2,000 m in eleva- the country are arid to semi-arid, Iran pos- southern Persian Gulf coast is predomi- tion and with an annual rainfall of between sesses a very rich and diverse bird fauna; nantly Oriental, with some 29 breeding 100 and 300 mm, supports a steppe veg- over 490 species are known to have oc- species of Oriental origin reaching the etation dominated by the low shrub Ar- curred. Two main factors are responsible northwestern extremities of their ranges temisia herba-alba. Large tracts have for this; the great range of habitats—from in Iran, while in southwestern Iran there been modified by man, either through the permanent snows to deep deserts and from is a small Afrotropical influence with six grazing of domestic animals or irrigation lush deciduous forest in the north to palm and cultivation, particularly for cereals. groves and mangroves in the south—and The resulting patchwork is now the home Iran’s position at a crossroads between of many of Iran’s commonest and most three major faunal regions. The bulk of widespread birds. Characteristic species the country lies within the Palearctic fau- include: long-legged buzzard Buteo ru- nal region, which stretches from Europe finus, Eurasian kestrel Falco tinnuncu- and North Africa across north and central lus, black-bellied sandgrouse Pterocles Asia to the Soviet Far East and Japan. Ly- orientalis, roller Coracias garrulus, bee- ing along the southern edge of this region, eater Merops apiaster, several species of Iran’s bird fauna includes a large Western lark alaudidae, including the ubiquitous Palearctic faunal element, reaching its crested lark Galerida cristala, isabelline eastern extremity in the central Alborz wheatear Oenanthe isabellina, and black- and Zagros mountains, and a smaller, but headed bunting. still marked, Eastern Palearctic element, breeding species of African origin. Fi- High mountains. The alpine zones which extends into northeastern Iran in nally, there are nine species of sea-bird of the Alborz and Zagros mountains and the highlands of Khorasan. In a number and shorebird of the Indian Ocean, which the higher peaks of mountain ranges in of cases, western and eastern forms—ei- breed on islands in the Persian Gulf and Azerbaijan, Khorasan, Kermān, and Balu- ther closely related species or well dif- the Straits of Hormoz. chistan provinces support a montane fau- ferentiated subspecies of a single spe- Eight major habitat types may be na—the so-called Paleomontane fauna— cies—come together with a narrow zone identified, each with its own charac- typical of all high mountain ranges from of hybridization in the central Alborz; teristic bird fauna: the Pyrenees and Alps in western Europe e.g., the wheatears Oenanthe hispani- True desert and semidesert. The des- ca and O. pleschanka, the buntings Em- ert environment occurs throughout the beriza melanocephala and E. bruniceps, central desert basin from the region of and the green-backed and gray-backed Tehran through the great Dašt-e Kavīr and forms of the great tit Parus major (Haf- Dašt-e Lūt deserts to the Jāz Mūrīān basin fer). In southern Iran, two other faunal in central Baluchistan and locally along regions have a pronounced influence on the southern coastal lowlands from north- the avifauna: The Oriental region in the western Ḵūzestān to Baluchistan. Rather southeast, and the Afrotropical (Ethio- few species occur in true desert, and pian) in the southwest. densities are very low, but most of those Of 324 breeding species, 131 occur species which have become adapted to widely in the Palearctic region, 81 are this hostile environment have large ranges Western Palearctic species, reaching the both in Iran and in the southern Palearctic easternmost extremities of their ranges in as a whole. Examples include: Houbara
28 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E almond woodlands of the eastern Za- its 700 km of sandy shoreline, and the gros, the Kermān highlands, and isolated fresh-water lakes, marshes, and brackish mountains in northern Baluchistan, only lagoons in central Gīlān, the Gorgān Bay a handful of Western Palearctic species area, and the Turkoman steppes provide a occur. Characteristic birds here include complex of breeding and wintering areas a mixture of Middle Eastern specialties for waterfowl almost unequaled in the e.g., white-throated robin Irania guttura- Western Palearctic. The region is best lis and plain leaf warbler Phylloscopus known for its wintering waterfowl and the neglectus, Eastern Palearctic species, e.g., traditional commercial duck-harvesting isabelline shrike Lanius isabellinus and which this has supported (Savage, pp. Hume’s lesser whitethroat Sylvia (cur- 30-46). Regular censuses in recent years ruca) althaea, Oriental species, e.g., have estimated the mid-winter popula- bay-backed shrike Lanius vittatus, and tion of ducks, geese, swans, and coots at Western Palearctic species at the extreme well over a million birds, with perhaps to the Himalayas. Characteristic species edge of their ranges, e.g., wood pigeon, as many birds again occurring on pas- include: golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos, nightingale, and blackbird Turdus merula. sage in spring and autumn. In addition, bearded vulture Gypaetus barbatus, al- Finally, throughout the remoter mountain there are large wintering populations of pine swift Apus melba, crag martin Hirun- ranges of Iran there still exist good stands Dalmatian pelicans Pelecanus crispus, do rupestris, horned lark Eremophila of juniper forest with specialties such as greater flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber, alpestris, alpine chough Pyrrhocorax gold-fronted serin Serinus pusillus and, in grebes Podicipedidae, herons and egrets graculus, alpine accentor Prunella col- the northeast, white-winged grosbeak My- Ardeidae, shorebirds Charadriidae and laris, rock thrush Monticola saxatilis, cerobas carnipes. Scolopacidae, and gulls Laridae. During black redstart Phoenicurus ochruros, wall The hot southern lowlands. The arid the spring and autumn migration sea- creeper Tichodroma muraria, and snow tropical climate of the southern coastal sons, large numbers of shorebirds pass finch Montifringilla nivalis. The Caspian lowlands supports a flora and fauna quite through the south Caspian on their way snowcock Tetraogallus caspius, which unlike that of the rest of Iran. From north- between breeding grounds in the Arctic is confined to high mountain ranges in western Ḵūzestān to eastern Persian Bal- and wintering grounds in the Persian Turkey and Iran, is still locally common uchistan, open park-like stands of Aca- Gulf and East and South Africa, and in on the highest peaks in the Alborz and cia, Prosopis, and Tamarix and extensive summer the marshes teem with breeding Zagros. date-palm groves provide suitable habi- cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo, herons, Forests and woodland. Although tat for a variety of Oriental/Afrotropical egrets, gallinules including purple galli- of rather limited extent, Iran’s forested species, such as palm dove Streptopelia nule Porphyrio porphyrio, and whiskered regions possess a very rich bird fauna, senegalensis, indian roller Coracias ben- terns Chlidonias hybrida. which is largely Western Palearctic in af- ghalensis, little green bee-eater Merops The other major wetland areas in finities. The luxuriant forests of northern orientalis, white-eared bulbul Pycnonotus Iran are hardly any less spectacular. The Azerbaijan and the south Caspian region leucotis, graceful prinia Prinia gracilis, wetlands of the Reżāʾīya (Urmia) basin have a bird fauna scarcely different from common babbler Turdoides caudatus, in Azerbaijan, centered on the very large that of a central European woodland, purple sunbird Nectarinia asiatica and and highly saline Lake Urmia, support with common species including: wood yellow-throated sparrow Petronia xan- large breeding colonies of waterfowl, no- pigeon Columba palumbus, green wood- thocollis. A number of species of Oriental tably greater flamingo (20,000 to 25,000 pecker Picus viridis, great spotted wood- origin, such as Indian sand lark Calan- pairs), white pelican Pelecanus onocrota- pecker Dendrocopos major, tree pipit An- drella raytal, common mynah Acridoth- lus (1,000 to 1,600 pairs), spoonbill Pla- thus trivialis, red-backed shrike Lanius eres tristis, and Sind jungle sparrow Pass- talea leucorodia, glossy ibis Plegadis collurio, jay Garrulus glandarius, er pyrrhonotus, are confined to extreme falcinellus, white stork Ciconia ciconia, wren Troglodytes troglodytes, dun- southeast Persian Baluchistan, while shelduck and ruddy shelduck Tadorna nock Prunella modularis, blackcap Sylvia several others extend only as far west as tadorna and T. ferruginea, avocet Re- atricapilla, icterine warbler Hippolais ic- the Bandar-e ʿAbbās region, e.g., white- curvirostra avosetta, black-winged terina, robin Erithacus rubecula, nightin- eyed buzzard-eagle Butastur teesa, Indian stilt Himantopus himantopus, and herring gale Luscinia megarhynchos, several spe- gray partridge Francolinus pondiceria- cies of thrush Turdus sp., several species nus, and Sind pied woodpecker Dendro- of tit Parus sp. and chaffinch Fringilla copos assimilis. In the west, the riverine coelebs. The drier and more open oak poplar thickets and marsh edge habitat of woodlands of the western Zagros lack Ḵūzestān hold several specialties, such some of the true forest species and have as gray hypocolius Hypocolius ampeli- a Mediterranean element which includes nus, Iraq babbler Turdoides altirostris, species such as Syrian woodpecker Den- and Dead Sea sparrow Passer moabiticus. drocopos syriacus, masked shrike Lanius The wetlands. Although much of nubicus, black-eared wheatear, somber Iran is extremely dry, there are several tit Parus lugubris, and cinereous bun- very extensive wetland systems of great ting Emberiza cineracea. In the even importance for a wide variety of water- drier mixed pistachio, sycamore, and fowl species. The south Caspian Sea,
Winter 2020 29 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E and slender-billed gulls Larus argenta- on Ardea goliath (in mangroves), and tus and L. genei. The wetlands are ex- several species of terns Sterna sp. Win- tremely important for passage shorebirds tering species include Dalmatian pelican, and in mild winters can hold over 50,000 cormorant, spoonbill, osprey Pandion wintering ducks and geese. haliaetus, white-tailed eagle Haliaee- The flood plains of the Dez, Kārūn, tus albicilla, many shorebirds notably and Karḵa rivers in Ḵūzestān, the com- oyster-catcher Haematopus ostralegus, plex of fresh, brackish, and saline lakes bar-tailed godwit Limosa lapponica, at the inland delta of the Helmand river curlew Numenius arquata and plovers in Sīstān, on the Afghan border, and the of the genus Charadrius, and a variety network of fresh and saline lakes in cen- of skuas Stercorarius sp., gulls Larus sp., tral Fārs, particularly Lake Baḵtagān, and terns Sterna sp. Lake Tašk, Lake Mahārlū, Lake Parīšān, Offshore islands. The many small and the Dašt-e Arjan marshes all provide and uninhabited islands in the Persian habitat for many hundreds of thousands of Gulf and straits of Hormoz provide ide- wintering waterfowl. In addition to a wide al breeding grounds for large colonies range of ducks, geese, and shorebirds, of seabirds. The main species are great these wetlands are particularly important crested tern Sterna bergii, lesser crested for wintering white pelican (Fārs and tern S. bengalensis, white-checked tern S. Sīstān), sacred ibis Threskiornis aethi- repressa, and bridled tern S. anaethetus, opicus (Ḵūzestān), white stork (Ḵūzestān but small colonies of red-billed tropic- and Fārs), greater flamingo (Fārs), and bird Phaethon aethereus, socotra cor- birds breeding in western Iran migrating common crane Grus grus (all three ar- morant Phalacrocorax nigrogularis, and southwest in autumn and those breed- eas). In years of good rainfall, wetlands saunders’ little tern Sterna saundersi have ing in eastern Iran migrating southeast, in all three regions can be of great impor- been found, and the Persian shearwa- e.g., swallow Hirundo rustica and sand tance for breeding waterfowl, particularly ter Puffinus lherminieri persicus prob- martin Riparia riparia. In many species, herons, egrets, spoonbill, glossy ibis, red- ably breeds. a small number of individuals occasion- wattled lapwing Vanellus indicus, white- Table 6 and Table 6 (contin- ally overwinter in the extreme southwest tailed plover Vanellus leucurus, and col- ued) gives a breakdown of the Iranian avi- or southeast of Iran. lared pratincole Glareola pratincola. fauna according to family and status. Of Of the non-breeding visitors to Iran Coastal habitats of the Persian Gulf the 491 species which are known to have 86 species are winter visitors from breed- and Makrān coast. The tidal mud-flats, occurred in Iran at least 324 breed regu- ing grounds in the Soviet Union. Two- mangrove swamps, sandy beaches, rocky larly. 103 are almost if not entirely seden- thirds of these are waterfowl (particularly shores, and sea-cliffs of Iran’s south coast tary, remaining on or near their breeding ducks, geese, swans, and shorebirds) and support a variety of breeding and winter- grounds throughout the year. A few under- birds of prey. Banding studies have shown ing waterfowl and sea-birds. Breeding take short altitudinal migrations, moving that the bulk of ducks wintering in Iran species include crab plover Dromas ar- down from the highest mountain ranges originate from breeding grounds in the deola, great stone plover Esacus recur- during periods of hard weather. 123 spe- basin of the Ob and Irtysh rivers in West- virostris (only in the east), several spe- cies can be classed as “partial migrants.” ern Siberia. In many cases the number cies of herons and egrets such as Indian In some cases the individuals breeding in of birds overwintering represents only a pond heron Ardeola grayii, western reef Iran are largely sedentary, but numbers small proportion of the total present dur- heron Egretta gularis and goliath her- are swelled in autumn with the arrival ing the migration seasons, indicating that of individuals from breeding grounds to a large through passage is taking place. the north of Iran. In other cases, indi- 24 species occur in Iran only as passage viduals breeding in north or central Iran migrants in spring and autumn, breeding tend to be migratory, while many or all to the north of Iran and wintering to the of the individuals breeding in the south southwest or southeast. The remaining A D V E R T I S E are sedentary. In a third group of species, 57 non-breeding species include vagrants mainly those breeding in the highlands of and rare stragglers, chiefly from central north and west Iran, there is some move- and eastern Asia, and a small number of H E R E: ment of individuals, particularly young species which were formerly reported as birds, out of the breeding grounds into breeding in Iran but which have not been the central desert basin and southern recorded for many years, e.g., pied crested lowlands in the autumn. 98 species are cuckoo Clamator jacobinus, brown fish (973) breeding summer visitors, with the great owl Ketupa zeylonensis, scaly-bellied bulk of the Iranian breeding population green woodpecker Picus squamatus, migrating in autumn either southwest to black-headed shrike Lanius schach, black 471-4283 winter in the Arabian peninsula and Af- drongo Dicrurus macrocereus, jungle rica or southeast to winter in the Indian crow Corvus macrorhynchos, and desert www.persian-heritage.com subcontinent. Among a few species there sparrow Passer simplex. seems to be a “migratory divide,” with To be continued
30 No. 99 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E
Iranian-American Sculptor and Architect SIAH ARMAJANI JULY 10, 1939 - AUGUST 27, 2020
(taken from Wikipedia)
FAMILY AND EDUCATION 1966. He became an American citizen in 1967. Siavash Armajani an Iranian-American sculptor and ar- chitect.was born on July 10, 1939 and passed away on August EARLY CAREER 27, 2020. He was born into a wealthy, educated family of The Walker Art Center was the first to acquire Arma- textile merchants in 1939 in Tehran, Iran. He attended a Pres- jani’s work, after he entered two works into their biennial in byterian missionary school. He thought that his grandmother 1962. They purchased Prayer, an intricately lettered 70-inch was the influence that started his political activism. He began (180 cm) canvas covered in Farsi poetry. his art career making small collages in the late 1950s, visually Always interested in computing and engineering, dur- mirroring Persian miniatures and political posters, to spread ing the late 1960s he took classes at Control Data Institute in his vision of democracy and secularism and to publicize his Minneapolis, where he learned Fortran. Armajani taught at party the National Front. the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 1968 until After the monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came 1974, where he met Barry Le Va, who introduced him to Con- to power, in order to protect him, his family ordered him over- ceptual art then practiced in New York City. He participated seas in 1960. Armajani immigrated to the United States, where in Art by Telephone at the Museum of Contemporary Art, his uncle, Yahya Armajani, was chair of the history department Chicago in 1969. In 1970, Armajani contributed two works at Macalester College. There he studied art and philosophy, to the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Information: first, A making Saint Paul, Minnesota, his permanent home. He met Number Between Zero and One, a 9-foot (2.7 m) high column his wife at Macalester and he and Barbara Bauer married in filled with computer printouts of individual decimal numbers; and second, North Dakota Tower, a proposed spire 18 miles (29 km) high and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide calculated to cast a narrow shadow over the entire length of North Dakota from east to west. In 1968, he built First Bridge in White Bear Lake, Min- nesota as 10 feet (3.0 m) narrowing to 4 feet (1.2 m), illus- trating our perspective vision. He built Fibonacci Discovery Bridge (1968–1988) to follow the mathematical Fibonacci sequence and, for the Walker›s outdoor show 9 Artists/9 Spac- es, he built Bridge Over Tree (1970), a 91-foot (28 m) long walkway with stairs that rise and fall over an evergreen tree. In 1974–75 he built more than 1,000 cardboard and balsa wood models of components of American vernacular archi- tecture titled Dictionary for Building. In 1988, he designed the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge in Minneapolis, uniting two neighborhoods previously sepa-
Winter 2020 31 T H E A R T S & C U L T U R E rated by 16 lanes of streets and highway. Armajani expresses three basic types of bridge construction: beam (the walkway), arch (eastern side), and suspension (western side). He com- missioned a poem by John Ashbery that is stamped into the bridge›s upper beams. And in 1993, he built on one side in Loring Park, the pavilion Gazebo for Four Anarchists: Mary Nardini, Irma Sanchini, William James Sidis, Carlo Valdinoci. Siah Armajani designed the Olympic Torch presiding over the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, but later disowned the project because the Olympic Committee failed to uphold their contract. He worked on other projects such as the Round Ga- zebo in Nice, France, the Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, and projects in Münster, Germany; Battery Park City, New York; at Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, New York; and at the North Shore Esplanade at the St. George’s Staten Island Ferry Ter- minal in Staten Island, New York. cal view of the war in Iraq. It was recently on view at the LATER CAREER Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Seven Rooms of In his later years, Armajani returned to his politically Hospitality is based on a conversation between Jacques Der- active roots. His 2005 work, Fallujah, is a modern take on Pi- rida and Anne Dufourmantelle. Room for Deportees (2017) casso’s Guernica but was censored in the U.S. due to its criti- speaks out to the hard line, anti-immigrant policies that took over in the US and Europe. An exhibition at Muelensteen Gallery in 2011 presented a dozen of Armajani’s early pieces made between 1957 and 1962, created in the years leading up to his arrival in America. Many employ ink or watercolor on cloth or paper, and incorporate text. In his Shirt (1958), Armajani uses pencil and ink to completely cover his father’s shirt in Persian script. The Minneapolis Institute of Art holds several works: Sky- way No.2 (1980), a 5-foot (1.5 m) mahogany and brass por- tal; Mississippi Delta (2005-2006), a colored pencil on Mylar triptych picturing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and An Exile Dreaming of Saint Adorno (2009), a cage-like inhabited tiny house or stage named for Theodor W. Adorno. Armajani was the subject of more than 50 solo exhibi- tions, and his works featured in dozens of major exhibitions in the US and Europe. Siah Armajani: Follow This Line, the first comprehensive US retrospective dedicated to the artist, was on view at the Walker Art Center September 9 through De- cember 30, 2018, and at the Met Breuer February 20 through June 2, 2019. Armajani died of heart failure in Minneapolis on August 27, 2020, at age 81.
AWARDS AND HONORS In 2010, he won a Knight Fellow award granted by United States Artists. In 2011, he was awarded Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government and received a distinguished artist award from the McKnight Foundation.
32 No. 99