March 2016
History of art(west and Iranian)-contemporary art History of art(west and Iranian)-contemporary art
Aziz Art March 2016 Aydin Aghdashloo Raphael Norwruz Festival
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Aziz<br />
Art<br />
<strong>March</strong> <strong>2016</strong><br />
Aydin Aghdashloo<br />
Raphael<br />
Norwruz Festival
1.Aydin Aghdashloo<br />
5. Raffaello<br />
14. Nowruz<br />
Director: AzizAnzabi<br />
Editor and translator :<br />
Asra Yaghoubi<br />
Research: Zohreh Nazari<br />
http://www.aziz-anzabi.com
Aydin Aghdashloo born October<br />
30, 1940 is an Iranian painter,<br />
author, art critic, art historian and<br />
graphic designer.<br />
He currently lives in Tehran, Iran,<br />
and lectures in different Iranian<br />
Universities besides his professional<br />
work.<br />
Early life<br />
Aydin Aghdashloo was born in<br />
Rasht, Iran. His father, Mammad<br />
Aghdashloo (born Mammad Hajiev)<br />
was an engineer and the Labour<br />
Minister in Azerbaijan Democratic<br />
Republic between 1919 and 1920.<br />
After the invasion of Azerbaijan by<br />
the Soviet Red Army in 1920, he<br />
and his wife Nahida, Aydin's<br />
mother, had to flee Baku,<br />
Azerbaijan, and take refuge in<br />
Tabriz, Iran. To avoid identification<br />
by the Soviet spies in Iran,<br />
Mammad changed his last name<br />
from Hajiev to Aghdashloo and<br />
later moved to Rasht, where Aydin<br />
was born, and finally to Tehran<br />
when Aghdashloo was 5 years old.<br />
Aydin Aghdashloo started selling his<br />
paintings from the age of 14, two<br />
years after his father's death as a<br />
result of kidney complications.<br />
Shah's era<br />
Aghdashloo was appointed by the<br />
Shahbanu (Empress) of Iran, Farah<br />
Pahlavi, as the "Head of Artistic<br />
Affairs of Shahbanu's Special<br />
Bureau". His responsibilities<br />
included purchase of artworks from<br />
contemporary artists such as Andy<br />
Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Claude<br />
Monet for the Tehran Museum of<br />
Contemporary Art. He also helped<br />
establish the Reza Abbasi Museum<br />
in Tehran in 1977 and was the head<br />
of the museum until 1979.<br />
He married his first wife, Iranian<br />
actress Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar, aka<br />
Shohreh Aghdashloo, in 1971. They<br />
divorced in 1979.<br />
1
After the Iranian revolution of<br />
1979, Aghdashloo lost both his<br />
official jobs and was under threat<br />
by Khomeini's regime and was<br />
barred from leaving Iran for over 10<br />
years, until 1989.<br />
Aghdashloo had to adjust himself<br />
to the new strict rules imposed by<br />
the government to control and<br />
Islamicize arts and culture. Before<br />
being allowed to teach in Iranian<br />
universities in 1981, he started his<br />
private art classes which he still<br />
continues to teach, beside lecturing<br />
in a number of universities in<br />
Iran.He was also the first artist to<br />
exhibit his artwork at Tehran's<br />
Assar Art Gallery in the late 1990s.<br />
He married Firouzeh Athari in 1981<br />
from which they have a son and a<br />
daughter.<br />
Paintings<br />
Early in his career, Aghdashloo<br />
took great interest in the<br />
Renaissance and<br />
Sandro Botticelli's paintings in<br />
particular. He even used to test his<br />
own skills by copying Botticelli's<br />
works to the last detail. His<br />
admiration for Renaissance<br />
paintings lead to the creation of<br />
his "Memories of Destruction“<br />
series in the early 1970s which<br />
became his<br />
most celebrated and famous<br />
series.In these series Aghdashloo<br />
depicts destruction of identity and<br />
beauty by painting a complete<br />
Renaissance masterpiece and then<br />
partially destroy or deface it.<br />
"Memories of Destruction"<br />
continued after 1979 but went<br />
through a transformation in which<br />
Islamic art became his main model<br />
instead of Renaissance art, while in<br />
both periods he uses Islamic and<br />
Renaissance models<br />
simultaneously.<br />
He also uses Persian miniatures<br />
extensively in his paintings after<br />
1979. The crumpled Persian<br />
miniature series are the best<br />
example.<br />
Other<br />
Besides painting, Aghdashloo is an<br />
expert in Iranian pre-Islamic and<br />
Islamic art history and artifacts. He<br />
assesses items for auction houses<br />
such as Christie's and Sotheby's.<br />
Aghdashloo has published eight<br />
books; three articles collections,<br />
two paintings collections and two<br />
researches in Iranian art history.<br />
He has been teaching art and art<br />
history in a number of universities<br />
in Iran since 1981.
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino April 6<br />
or <strong>March</strong> 28, 1483 – April 6,<br />
1520),known as Raphael was an<br />
Italian painter and architect of the<br />
High Renaissance. His work is<br />
admired for its clarity of form, ease<br />
of composition, and visual<br />
achievement of the Neoplatonic<br />
ideal of human grandeur. Together<br />
with Michelangelo and Leonardo<br />
da Vinci, he forms the traditional<br />
trinity of great masters of that<br />
period.<br />
Raphael was enormously<br />
productive, running an unusually<br />
large workshop and, despite his<br />
death at 37, leaving a large body<br />
of work. Many of his works are<br />
found in the Vatican Palace, where<br />
the frescoes Raphael Rooms were<br />
the central, and the largest, work<br />
of his career. The best known<br />
work is The School of Athens in the<br />
Vatican Stanza della Segnatura.<br />
After his early years in Rome much<br />
of his work was executed by his<br />
workshop from his drawings, with<br />
considerable loss of quality. He was<br />
extremely influential in his<br />
lifetime, though outside Rome his<br />
work was mostly known from his<br />
collaborative printmaking.<br />
After his death, the influence of his<br />
great rival Michelangelo was more<br />
widespread until the 18th and 19th<br />
centuries, when Raphael's more<br />
serene and harmonious qualities<br />
were again regarded as the highest<br />
models. His career falls naturally<br />
into three phases and three styles,<br />
first described by Giorgio Vasari: his<br />
early years in Umbria, then a period<br />
of about four years (1504–1508)<br />
absorbing the artistic traditions of<br />
Florence, followed by his last hectic<br />
and triumphant twelve years in<br />
Rome, working for two Popes and<br />
their close associates.<br />
Early life and work<br />
His mother Màgia died in 1491<br />
when Raphael was eight, followed<br />
on August 1, 1494 by his father,<br />
who had already remarried.<br />
Raphael was thus orphaned at<br />
eleven; his formal guardian became<br />
his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo,<br />
a priest, who subsequently<br />
engaged in litigation with his<br />
stepmother. He probably continued<br />
to live with his stepmother when<br />
not staying as an apprentice with a<br />
master. He had already shown<br />
talent, according to Vasari, who<br />
says that Raphael had been "a great<br />
help to his father".<br />
5
A brilliant self-portrait drawing<br />
from his teenage years shows his<br />
precocious talent.His father's<br />
workshop continued and, probably<br />
together with his stepmother,<br />
Raphael evidently played a part in<br />
managing it from a very early age.<br />
In Urbino, he came into contact<br />
with the works of Paolo Uccello,<br />
previously the court painter (d.<br />
1475), and Luca Signorelli, who<br />
until 1498 was based in nearby<br />
Città di Castello.<br />
According to Vasari, his father<br />
placed him in the workshop of the<br />
Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as<br />
an apprentice "despite the tears of<br />
his mother".<br />
The evidence of an apprenticeship<br />
comes only from Vasari and<br />
another source,and has been<br />
disputed—eight was very early for<br />
an apprenticeship to begin. An<br />
alternative theory is that he<br />
received at least some training<br />
from Timoteo Viti, who acted as<br />
court painter in Urbino from<br />
1495.But most modern historians<br />
agree that Raphael at least worked<br />
as an assistant to Perugino from<br />
around 1500; the influence of<br />
Perugino on Raphael's early work is<br />
very clear: "probably no other pupil<br />
of genius has ever absorbed so<br />
much of his master's teaching as<br />
Raphael did", according to<br />
Wölfflin.Vasari wrote that it was<br />
impossible to distinguish between<br />
their hands at this period, but many<br />
modern art historians claim to do<br />
better and detect his hand in<br />
specific areas of works by Perugino<br />
or his workshop. Apart from<br />
stylistic closeness, their techniques<br />
are very similar as well, for example<br />
having paint applied thickly, using<br />
an oil varnish medium, in shadows<br />
and darker garments, but very<br />
thinly on flesh areas. An excess of<br />
resin in the varnish often causes<br />
cracking of areas of paint in the<br />
works of both masters.The Perugino<br />
workshop was active in both<br />
Perugia and Florence, perhaps<br />
maintaining two permanent<br />
branches. Raphael is described as a<br />
"master", that is to say fully<br />
trained, in December 1500.
His first documented work was the<br />
Baronci altarpiece for the church<br />
of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in<br />
Città di Castello, a town halfway<br />
between Perugia and Urbino.<br />
Evangelista da Pian di Meleto,<br />
who had worked for his father, was<br />
also named in the commission. It<br />
was commissioned in 1500 and<br />
finished in 1501; now only some<br />
cut sections and a preparatory<br />
drawing remain. In the following<br />
years he painted works for other<br />
churches there, including the<br />
Mond Crucifixion (about 1503)<br />
and the Brera Wedding of the<br />
Virgin (1504), and for Perugia,<br />
such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He<br />
very probably also visited Florence<br />
in this period. These are large<br />
works, some in fresco, where<br />
Raphael confidently marshals his<br />
compositions in the somewhat<br />
static style of Perugino. He also<br />
painted many small and exquisite<br />
cabinet paintings in these years,<br />
probably mostly for the<br />
connoisseurs in the Urbino court,<br />
like the Three Graces and St.<br />
Michael, and he began to paint<br />
Madonnas and portraits. In 1502<br />
he went to Siena at the invitation<br />
of another pupil of Perugino,<br />
Pinturicchio, "being a friend of<br />
Raphael and knowing him to be a<br />
draughtsman of the highest<br />
quality" to help with the cartoons,<br />
and very likely the designs, for a<br />
fresco series in the Piccolomini<br />
Library in Siena Cathedral. He was<br />
evidently already much in demand<br />
even at this early stage in his<br />
career.<br />
Workshop<br />
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke<br />
of Urbino from 1482-1508, c.1507<br />
Vasari says that Raphael eventually<br />
had a workshop of fifty pupils and<br />
assistants, many of whom later<br />
became significant artists in their<br />
own right. This was arguably the<br />
largest workshop team assembled<br />
under any single old master painter,<br />
and much higher than the norm.<br />
They included established masters<br />
from other parts of Italy, probably<br />
working with their own teams as<br />
sub-contractors, as well as pupils<br />
and journeymen. We have very<br />
little evidence of the internal<br />
working arrangements of the<br />
workshop, apart from the works of<br />
art themselves, often very difficult<br />
to assign to a particular hand.
The most important figures were<br />
Giulio Romano, a young pupil from<br />
Rome (only about twenty-one at<br />
Raphael's death), and<br />
Gianfrancesco Penni, already a<br />
Florentine master. They were left<br />
many of Raphael's drawings and<br />
other possessions, and to some<br />
extent continued the workshop<br />
after Raphael's death. Penni<br />
did not achieve a personal<br />
reputation equal to Giulio's, as<br />
after Raphael's death he became<br />
Giulio's less-than-equal<br />
collaborator in turn for much of his<br />
subsequent career.<br />
Perino del Vaga, already a master,<br />
and Polidoro da Caravaggio, who<br />
was supposedly promoted from a<br />
labourer carrying building<br />
materials on the site, also became<br />
notable painters in their own right.<br />
Polidoro's partner, Maturino da<br />
Firenze, has, like Penni, been<br />
overshadowed in subsequent<br />
reputation by his partner. Giovanni<br />
da Udine had a more independent<br />
status, and was responsible for the<br />
decorative stucco work and<br />
grotesques surrounding the main<br />
frescoes.Most of the artists were<br />
later scattered, and some killed, by<br />
the violent Sack of Rome in 1527.<br />
This did however contribute to the<br />
diffusion of versions of Raphael's<br />
style around Italy and beyond.<br />
Vasari emphasises that Raphael ran<br />
a very harmonious and efficient<br />
workshop, and had extraordinary<br />
skill in smoothing over troubles and<br />
arguments with both patrons and<br />
his assistants—a contrast with the<br />
stormy pattern of Michelangelo's<br />
relationships with both. However<br />
though both Penni and Giulio were<br />
sufficiently skilled that<br />
distinguishing between their hands<br />
and that of Raphael himself is still<br />
sometimes difficult,there is no<br />
doubt that many of Raphael's later<br />
wall-paintings, and probably some<br />
of his easel paintings, are more<br />
notable for their design than their<br />
execution. Many of his portraits, if<br />
in good condition, show his<br />
brilliance in the detailed handling<br />
of paint right up to the end of his<br />
life.<br />
Other pupils or assistants include<br />
Raffaellino del Colle, Andrea<br />
Sabbatini, Bartolommeo Ramenghi,<br />
Pellegrino Aretusi, Vincenzo<br />
Tamagni, Battista Dossi, Tommaso<br />
Vincidor,
Timoteo Viti (the Urbino painter),<br />
and the sculptor and architect<br />
Lorenzetto (Giulio's brother-in-law).<br />
The printmakers and architects in<br />
Raphael's circle are discussed<br />
below. It has been claimed the<br />
Flemish Bernard van Orley worked<br />
for Raphael for a time, and Luca<br />
Penni, brother of Gianfrancesco,<br />
may have been a member of the<br />
team.<br />
Drawings<br />
Raphael was one of the finest<br />
craftsmen in the history of<br />
Western art, and used drawings<br />
extensively to plan his<br />
compositions. According to a nearcontemporary,<br />
when beginning to<br />
plan a composition, he would lay<br />
out a large number of stock<br />
drawings of his on the floor, and<br />
begin to draw "rapidly", borrowing<br />
figures from here and there.Over<br />
forty sketches survive for the<br />
Disputa in the Stanze, and there<br />
may well have been many more<br />
originally; over four hundred<br />
sheets survive altogether.<br />
He used different drawings to<br />
refine his poses and compositions,<br />
apparently to a greater extent<br />
than most other painters, to judge<br />
by the number of variants that<br />
survive: "... This is how Raphael<br />
himself, who was so rich in<br />
inventiveness, used to work, always<br />
coming up with four or six ways to<br />
show a narrative, each one<br />
different from the rest, and all of<br />
them full of grace and well done."<br />
wrote another writer after his<br />
death. For John Shearman,<br />
Raphael's art marks "a shift of<br />
resources away from production to<br />
research and development".<br />
When a final composition was<br />
achieved, scaled-up full-size<br />
cartoons were often made, which<br />
were then pricked with a pin and<br />
"pounced" with a bag of soot to<br />
leave dotted lines on the surface as<br />
a guide. He also made unusually<br />
extensive use, on both paper and<br />
plaster, of a "blind stylus",<br />
scratching lines which leave only an<br />
indentation, but no mark. These<br />
can be seen on the wall in The<br />
School of Athens, and in the<br />
originals of many drawings.The<br />
"Raphael Cartoons", as tapestry<br />
designs, were fully coloured in a<br />
glue distemper medium, as they<br />
were sent to Brussels to be<br />
followed by the weavers.
In later works painted by the<br />
workshop, the drawings are often<br />
painfully more attractive than the<br />
paintings. Most Raphael drawings<br />
are rather precise—even initial<br />
sketches with naked outline figures<br />
are carefully drawn, and later<br />
working drawings often have a high<br />
degree of finish, with shading and<br />
sometimes highlights in white. They<br />
lack the freedom and energy of<br />
some of Leonardo's and<br />
Michelangelo's sketches, but are<br />
nearly always aesthetically very<br />
satisfying. He was one of the last<br />
artists to use metalpoint (literally a<br />
sharp pointed piece of silver or<br />
another metal) extensively,<br />
although he also made superb use<br />
of the freer medium of red or black<br />
chalk.In his final years he was one<br />
of the first artists to use female<br />
models for preparatory drawings—<br />
male pupils ("garzoni") were<br />
normally used for studies of both<br />
sexes.
Nowruz
Nowruz ( "New Day") is the name<br />
of the Iranian New Year,<br />
also known as the Persian and<br />
Kurdish New Year, is celebrated by<br />
Iranian peoples worldwide as the<br />
beginning of the new year. It has<br />
been celebrated for over 3,000<br />
years in the Balkans, the Black Sea<br />
Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia,<br />
and the Middle East.It marks the<br />
first day of the month of Farvardin<br />
in the Iranian calendar.<br />
Nowruz is the day of the<br />
astronomical vernal equinox (or<br />
northward equinox), which marks<br />
the beginning of the spring in the<br />
northern hemisphere and usually<br />
occurs on <strong>March</strong> 21 or the<br />
previous/following day depending<br />
on where it is observed. The<br />
moment the sun crosses the<br />
celestial equator and equalizes<br />
night and day is calculated exactly<br />
every year and families gather<br />
together to observe the rituals.<br />
Although having Persian and<br />
religious Zoroastrian origins,<br />
Nowruz has been celebrated by<br />
people from diverse ethnic<br />
communities and religious<br />
backgrounds for thousands of<br />
years. It is a secular holiday for<br />
most celebrants that is enjoyed by<br />
people of several different faiths,<br />
but remains a holy day for<br />
Zoroastrians.<br />
Origin<br />
Nowruz is partly rooted in the<br />
religious tradition of Iranian<br />
religions such as Zoroastrianism or<br />
even older in tradition of Mitraism<br />
because in Mitraism festivals had a<br />
deep linkage with the sun light. The<br />
Persian festivals of Yalda (longest<br />
night) and Mehregan (autumnal<br />
equinox) and Tiregān (longest day)<br />
also had an origin in the Sun god<br />
(Surya). Among other ideas,<br />
Zoroastrianism is the first<br />
monotheistic religion that<br />
emphasizes broad concepts such as<br />
the corresponding work of good<br />
and evil in the world, and the<br />
connection of humans to nature.<br />
Zoroastrian practices were<br />
dominant for much of the history of<br />
ancient Persia (modern day Iran &<br />
Western Afghanistan).<br />
14
Nowruz is believed to have been Ancient Iran. Due to its antiquity,<br />
invented by Zoroaster himself in there exist various foundation<br />
Balkh (modern-day Afghanistan), myths for Nowruz in Iranian<br />
although there is no clear date of mythology. In the Zoroastrian<br />
origin. Since the Achaemenid era tradition, the seven most important<br />
the official year has begun with the Zoroastrian festivals are the<br />
New Day when the Sun leaves the Gahambars and Nowruz, which<br />
zodiac of Pisces and enters the occurs at the spring equinox.<br />
zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the According to Mary Boyce,<br />
Spring Equinox. Nowruz is also a “It seems a reasonable surmise that<br />
holy day for Sufi Muslims, Nowruz, the holiest of them all,<br />
Bektashis, Ismailis, Alawites,Alevis, with deep doctrinal significance,<br />
Babis and adherents of the Bahá'í was founded by Zoroaster<br />
Faith.<br />
himself.Between sunset on the day<br />
The term Nowruz in writing first of the 6th Gahanbar and sunrise of<br />
appeared in historical Persian Nowruz, Hamaspathmaedaya (later<br />
records in the 2nd century CE, but known, in its extended form, as<br />
it was also an important day during Frawardinegan) was celebrated.<br />
the time of the Achaemenids (c. This and the Gahanbar are the only<br />
550–330 BCE), where kings from festivals named in the surviving text<br />
different nations under the Persian of the Avesta.<br />
Empire used to bring gifts to the The Shahnameh dates Nowruz as<br />
Emperor, also called King of Kings far back to the reign of Jamshid,<br />
(Shahanshah), of Persia on Nowruz. who in Zoroastrian texts saved<br />
The significance of Nowruz in the mankind from a killer winter that<br />
Achaemenid Empire was such that was destined to kill every living<br />
the great Persian king<br />
creature. The mythical Persian King<br />
Cambyses II's appointment as the Jamshid (Yima or Yama of the Indoking<br />
of Babylon was legitimized Iranian lore) perhaps symbolizes<br />
only after his participation in the the transition of the Indo-Iranians<br />
New Year festival<br />
from animal hunting to animal<br />
History and tradition<br />
husbandry and a more settled life<br />
The celebration has its roots in in human history
In the Shahnameh and Iranian first day when the universe started<br />
mythology, he is credited with the its motion.The Persian historian<br />
foundation of Nowruz. In the Abu Saʿīd Gardēzī in his work titled<br />
Shahnama, Jamshid constructed a Zayn al-Akhbār under the section of<br />
throne studded with gems. He had the Zoroastrians festivals mentions<br />
demons raise him above the earth Nowruz (among other festivals) and<br />
into the heavens; there he sat on specifically points out that<br />
his throne like the sun shining in Zoroaster highly emphasized the<br />
the sky. The world's creatures celebration of Nowruz and<br />
gathered in wonder about him Mehregan.<br />
and scattered jewels around him, History<br />
and called this day the New Day or Nowruz in Persia<br />
No/Now-Ruz. This was the first day Persepolis all nations staircase.<br />
of the month of Farvardin (the first Notice the people from across the<br />
month of the Persian calendar). Achaemenid Persian Empire<br />
The Persian scholar Abu Rayhan bringing gifts. Some scholars have<br />
Biruni of the 10th century CE, in his associated the occasion to be<br />
Persian work "Kitab al-Tafhim li either Mehregan or Nowruz.<br />
Awa'il Sina'at al-Tanjim" provides a Shah Tahmasp I and Humayun<br />
description of the calendar of celebrating Nowvruz festival, 16th<br />
various nations. Besides<br />
century, Isfahan, Persia<br />
the Persian calendar, various Although it is not clear whether<br />
festivals of Arabs, Jews, Sabians, proto-Indo-Iranians celebrated a<br />
Greeks and other nations are feast as the first day of the<br />
mentioned in this book. In the calendar, there are indications that<br />
section on the Persian calendar , both Iranians and Indians may have<br />
he mentions Nowruz, Sadeh, observed the beginning of both<br />
Tiregan, Mehregan, the six autumn and spring, related to the<br />
Gahanbar, Parvardegaan, harvest and the sowing of seeds,<br />
Bahmanja, Isfandarmazh and respectively, for the celebration of<br />
several other festivals.<br />
new year.<br />
According to him: It is the belief of<br />
the Persians that Nowruz marks the
Boyce and Grenet explain the Hall,<br />
traditions for seasonal festivals and were built for the specific purpose<br />
comment: "It is possible that the of celebrating Nowruz. Although<br />
splendor of the Babylonian there may be no mention of<br />
festivities at this season led the Nowruz in recorded Achaemenid<br />
Persians to develop their own inscriptions (see picture),there is a<br />
spring festival into an established detailed account by Xenophon of a<br />
new year feast, with the name Nowruz celebration taking place in<br />
Navasarda 'New Year' (a name Persepolis and the continuity of this<br />
which, though first attested festival in the Achaemenid<br />
through Middle Persian<br />
tradition.in 539 BC the Jews came<br />
derivatives, is attributed to the under Persian rule thus exposing<br />
Achaemenian period). Since the both groups to each other's<br />
communal observations of the customs. According to<br />
ancient Iranians appear in general Encyclopædia Britannica, the story<br />
to have been a seasonal ones, and of Purim as told in the Book of<br />
related to agriculture, it is Esther is adapted from a Persian<br />
probable, that they traditionally novella about the shrewdness of<br />
held festivals in both autumn and harem queens suggesting that<br />
spring, to mark the major turning Purim may be a transformation of<br />
points of the natural year". the Persian New Year. A specific<br />
We have reasons to believe that novella is not identified and<br />
the celebration is much older than Encyclopædia Britannica itself<br />
that date and was surely<br />
notes that "no Jewish texts of this<br />
celebrated by the people and genre from the Persian period are<br />
royalty during the Achaemenid extant, so these new elements can<br />
times (555–330 BC). It was, be recognized only inferentially".<br />
therefore, a highly auspicious The Encyclopaedia of Religion and<br />
occasion for the ancient Iranian Ethics notes that the Purim holiday<br />
peoples. It has been suggested is based on a lunar calendar while<br />
that the famous Persepolis Nowruz occurs at the spring<br />
complex, or at least the palace of equinox (solar calendar).<br />
Apadana and the Hundred Columns
The two holidays are therefore<br />
celebrated on different dates but<br />
within a few weeks of each other,<br />
depending on the year. Both<br />
holidays are joyous celebrations.<br />
Given their temporal associations,<br />
it is possible that the Jews and<br />
Persians of the time may have<br />
shared or adopted similar customs<br />
for these holidays. The story of<br />
Purim as told in the Book of Esther<br />
has been dated anywhere from<br />
625–465 BC (although the story<br />
takes place with the Jews under<br />
the rule of the Achaemenid<br />
Empire and the Jews had come<br />
under Persian rule in 539 BC),<br />
while Nowruz is thought to have<br />
first been celebrated between<br />
555–330 BC. It remains unclear<br />
which holiday was established<br />
first.<br />
Nowruz was the holiday of<br />
Arsacid/Parthian dynastic Empires<br />
who ruled Iran (248 BC-224 CE)<br />
and the other areas ruled by the<br />
Arsacid dynasties outside Parthia<br />
(such as the Arsacid dynasty of<br />
Armenia and Iberia). There are<br />
specific references to the<br />
celebration of Nowruz during the<br />
reign of Vologases I (51–78 CE), but<br />
these include no details.Before<br />
Sassanids established their power<br />
in West Asia around 300 CE,<br />
Parthians celebrated Nowruz in<br />
Autumn and 1st of Farvardin began<br />
at the Autumn Equinox. During<br />
Parthian dynasty the Spring Festival<br />
was Mehragan, a Zoroastrian and<br />
Iranian festival celebrated in honor<br />
of Mithra.<br />
Extensive records on the<br />
celebration of Nowruz appear<br />
following the accession of Ardashir<br />
I of Persia, the founder of the<br />
Sassanid dynasty (224–651 CE).<br />
Under the Sassanid Emperors,<br />
Nowruz was celebrated as the most<br />
important day of the year. Most<br />
royal traditions of Nowruz such as<br />
royal audiences with the public,<br />
cash gifts, and the pardoning of<br />
prisoners, were established during<br />
the Sassanian era and persisted<br />
unchanged until modern times.<br />
Nowruz, along with Sadeh<br />
(celebrated in mid-winter), survived<br />
in society following the<br />
introduction of Islam in 650 CE.<br />
Other celebrations such Gahanbar<br />
and Mehragan were eventually<br />
side-lined or were only followed by<br />
the Zoroastrians, who carried them.<br />
It was adopted as the main royal<br />
holiday during the Abbasid period.
In the book Nowruznama drink immortality from the Cup of<br />
("Book of the New Year", which is Jamshid; and keep in solemn trust<br />
attributed to Omar Khayyam, the customs of our ancestors, their<br />
a well known Persian poet and noble aspirations, fair gestures and<br />
mathematician),<br />
the exercise of justice and<br />
a vivid description of the<br />
righteousness. May thy soul<br />
celebration in the courts of the flourish; may thy youth be as the<br />
Kings of Persia is provided: new-grown grain; may thy horse be<br />
“From the era of Kai Khusraw till puissant, victorious; thy sword<br />
the days of Yazdegard, last of the bright and deadly against foes; thy<br />
pre-Islamic kings of Persia, the hawk swift against its prey; thy<br />
royal custom was thus: on the every act straight as the arrow's<br />
first day of the New Year, shaft. Go forth from thy rich<br />
Now Ruz, the King's first visitor throne, conquer new lands. Honor<br />
was the High Mobad of the the craftsman and the sage in equal<br />
Zoroastrians, who brought with degree; disdain the acquisition of<br />
him as gifts a golden goblet full of wealth. May thy house prosper and<br />
wine, a ring, some gold coins, a thy life be long!"<br />
fistful of green sprigs of wheat, a Following the demise of the<br />
sword, and a bow. In the language Caliphate and the subsequent reemergence<br />
of Persian dynasties<br />
of Persia he would then glorify God<br />
and praise the monarch. This was such as the Samanids and Buyids,<br />
the address of the High Mobad to Nowruz was elevated to an even<br />
the king : "O Majesty, on this feast more important event. The Buyids<br />
of the Equinox, first day of the first revived the ancient traditions of<br />
month of the year, seeing that thou Sassanian times and restored many<br />
hast freely chosen God and the smaller celebrations that had been<br />
Faith of the Ancient ones; may eliminated by the Caliphate.<br />
Surush, the Angel-messenger, According to the Syrian historian<br />
grant thee wisdom and insight Yaqut al-Hamawi, the Iranian Buyid<br />
and sagacity in thy affairs. ruler ʿAżod-od-Dawla (r. 949-83)<br />
Live long in praise, be happy and customarily welcomed Nowruz in a<br />
fortunate upon thy golden throne, majestic hall,
wherein servants had placed gold<br />
and silver plates and vases full of<br />
fruit and colorful flowers.The King<br />
would sit on the royal throne<br />
(masnad), and the court<br />
astronomer came forward, kissed<br />
the ground, and congratulated him<br />
on the arrival of the New Year. The<br />
king would then summon<br />
musicians and singers, and invited<br />
his boon companions. They would<br />
gather in their assigned places and<br />
enjoy a great festive occasion.<br />
Even the Turkic and Mongol<br />
invaders did not attempt to abolish<br />
Nowruz in favor of any other<br />
celebration. Thus, Nowruz<br />
remained as the main celebration<br />
in the Persian lands by both the<br />
officials and the people.
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