Poetry Night - Feb 7th, 2008

Date: Thursday, February 07, 2008, 7:15 PM to 9:15 PM
Location: Cafe Borrone, Menlo Park , CA 94025
Attendees: Ray, Sima, Reza, Leili

Agenda:

1- Discussion: who is Zahaak?

In the previous session, we had left Fereydoon on his horse, riding towards Baghdad, to hit Zahaak on his head with a mallet, and put an end to his merciless dynasty. We left that session wondering, "who is Zahaak? Why Fereydoon is attacking him with a mallet? Who is Fereydoon? Why Ferdosi chose to narrate this story in that manner? Why..."

In our discussion this session, a very interesting question was raised:
"What does it mean, when Ferdosi narrates that "Jamsheed ruled for 700 years, and Zahaak ruled for 1000 years?"
A very insightful question, which helped us to obtain a better understanding of Shahnameh and its brilliant author, Ferdosi.

Ferdosi starts the book by praising "wisdom" and putting it above all the virtues and the creations in this world: the ability to analyze, to rationalize, and to weigh everything that we see and experience. Therefore, he must have intended for the readers of Shahnameh to look and think beyond the words and the fairytale. Then the concepts and the heroes in Shahnameh cannot be random. They must have been carefully chosen. So again, we ask ourselves, why 700 years, why 1000 years? Who is Zahaak? Who is Fereydoon?

After an hour of discussing the concepts from all different angles we reached at the following idea:

The 700 years of Jamsheed dynasty must refer to the Great Persian Empire before the Arabs invasion of Iran. The 1000 years of Zahaak's empire must refer to Iranian government after the Arab influence and suppression. (What is Ferdosi's message to the current reader?!!!! Is he reffering to something deeper than what you see on the surface? When can you claim that you are completely free and independent from something, or someone, or some idea?)

Zahaak has two snakes growing from his shoulders that feed on people's brains. That must refer to the Arabs prevention of Iranian language, art, science and culture to grow and spread. A very interesting twist in the story is the appearance of two cooks, who would free one person between the two captured by Zahaak's people to feed the snakes. They kill one man and mix his brain with the brain of a cow to make it look like two brains and help the other man to run away from Zahaak's empire. They gather somewhere, waiting for the opportunity to overthrown Zahaak. Ferdosi call them "kords" (Where are they hiding now? Are they running away still? who are those kords in current time? Should we call them Iranian-.... ?)

Another very interesting fact lies beneath Ferdosi's clever choice of Zahaak for the only ruler during the 1000 years: The concept of "Change and Time".
Yes my fellow Iranians, Persians, Sons and Daughter's of Jamsheed and the Great Land of Iran:
Change takes time. Big changes and improvements, specially for a country and a culture can take up to 1000 years and even more! There is light at the end of the tunnel, if we are patient, persistent and wise....

2- Continue reading شاهنامه (Shahnameh)
We continued the story of ضحاک till the end of page 11. Fereydoon broke Zahaak's dark spell in the name of the Almighty, and conquered his palace. In the palace, they found the beautiful daughters of the late king Jamsheed imprisoned for Zahaak's pleasure. He ordered to bathe them and nurture them. Once the fair daughters of Jamsheed felt the freedom and the love they were missing for many years, they started to cry and tell the stories of their misfortunes in Zahaak's regime. They praised Fereydoon for his wit and bravery to fight with Zahaak and win over his dark spell. "Many had attempted before you and were defeated" daughters of Jamsheed said. But Fereydoon corrected them by explaining that he was inspired and motivated by a cause much bigger than all the others who dared to fight Zahaak. "I'm the son of Abteen from the great land of Iran, who was cruelly murdered by Zahaak. I'm the boy whose nanny, the fairylike cow, was also murdered by Zahaak. Fame, money and power are fleeting, and can never be the drive, strong enough, to fight Zahaak"

What is Fereydoon's motive then? What gave him an upper hand to all the previous brave men who attempted to overthrown Zahaak? In "Shaahname", Ferdoosi wisely gives a hint to the readers with this line:

"کمر بسته​ام لاجرم جنگجوی"

What does it mean? Why Fereydoon had no other choice, but to fight??!! Is that the secret of his success? We have had some time to ponder this subtle point. I encourage people who want to join our next event to think about it as well. It will be an interesting discussion I'm sure.