Document Type : علمی- پژوهشی

Authors

• Taqi Poornamdarian ¹
• Elaheh Bayat Zarand ²

¹ , Persian Literature, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

² Persian language and literature department,Tehran university,Tehran,Iran

Abstract

Symbols are powerful images that articulate a set of cultural and mythological concepts in certain semantic clusters. These clusters produced through creative literary processes constitute a part of our cultural memory. One of the symbols is Simurgh that was generated in the pre-Islamic Persian texts and continued to remain in the cultural memory of the post-Islamic Iran. It has continued in the form of new articulations in Persian poetry and mysticism. These multiple articulations show that Simurgh in the Iranian culture has become a central signifier. Thus, an intertextual re-reading of the signifieds encoded in it can make the tradition of mythological and symbolic thought in the Iranian universe comprehensible for the new generation. Accordingly, by drawing on textual evidence from both the pre-Islamic and post-Islamic body of literature and by adopting the technique of close reading, the present paper makes an attempt to shed light on the rich symbolism of this bird in order to explore its semantic developments throughout the history. Moreover, it discusses how and why these semantic turns have taken place. On this basis, the present paper makes an attempt to answer this question: What is the difference between Simurgh in the pre-Islamic and post-Islamic literary texts and what creative manipulations in its form and content have taken place over time?

Highlights

Exploring the Semantic Development of Simurgh Symbolism in Persian Literature[1]

Extended abstract

Simurgh is one of the most significant symbols of Iran. This symbol has come into being within the texts of the Pre-Islamic Iran, persisting in the epic, lyrical, mystical and philosophical texts of the post-Islamic Iran both in prose and verse albeit with a semantic development. The present paper has surveyed the trajectory of the semantic development of this symbol up to the seventh century. The name of this mythical bird in Avesta has been mentioned as “Méréghô Saêna”that has a religious implication. It has been conceptually blended with a human character under the same name. Simurgh has been mentioned in Pahlavi texts as well. According to Avesta and Pahlavi texts, Simurgh nests on a tree of panacea, a tree carrying the seeds of all the trees existing in the universe. Sacredness is the most noticeable characteristics of Simurgh. It is so giant that it encircles all the mountains. It flies high and agilely. Its feathers have healing characteristics. It brings about glory, safety, success and nullifies the magic of the enemies. Simurg never falls prey to hunters. Similar to animals, it has a mouth and teeth. In terms of behavior, it resembles humans, breastfeeding its baby and raising it up. The conceived image of this bird is android and sacred.

Simurgh appears in epic and lyrical texts as well, but with a conceptual and semantic shift where it goes through a discursive rearticulating. It lives on the mountains of Alborz or Qaf or above the trees, while possessing a divine power and a gigantic body. Beauty, powerfulness, flying high and agilely are some of its characteristics. According to these texts, it is not only a healer and curer, but a means of communication. It is a skillful hunter. It is invisible and inclined to seclusion. It is a unique, cheerful and self-contained bird. In epic and lyrical texts, this bird is represented as being knowledgeable and intelligent. It is as experienced as humans and the best advisor ever. It advises Rustam to make a peace with Esfandiar and avoid fighting against him, but it eventually teaches Esfandiar how to kill Rustam.

Simurgh is capable of predicting the future including the promising future of Rustam before he is borne. Communication with humans is among its characteristics. Like humans, is can talk. As a professional physician and midwife, it helps Rostam’s mother with her labor. During the battle against Esfandiar, it helps Rostam to be healed. It advises Sam to be grateful after his son’s birth. This mythical bird can meet the needs of the humans. Its noticeable behavior is its commanding. Like humans, it raises children. It feeds on bones. Simurgh has been widely used in imageries. In literary similes, Simurgh usually acts as a vehicle or an object of comparison or an object of praise for the poet. The poets and writers create similes through the word Simurgh as in Simurgh of the morning, Simurgh of diligence and so on. In creating metaphors also Simurgh plays a role. It is sometimes used as a metaphor for both a human and non-human including a prophet, a beloved one, the sky, and the sun and so on. In Epical texts, blending of human and non-human characteristics of Simurgh persist, a characteristic that had originated from the pre-Islamic era. In lyrical texts, Simurgh sometimes takes merely human characteristics. Like in the pre-Islamic texts, the sacredness and the unique features of Simurgh still persist.

In the present paper, Simurgh has been investigated in mystical and philosophical texts both in verse and prose. In poetic texts, it resides on the Qaf mountain, but it does not have any embodied feature. Two reasons can be cited for this. First, the appearance does not matter. Second, it symbolizes things that are not embodied like God, the angels and the soul. In these texts also Simurgh has divine power and glory. Features such as Seclusion, inaccessibility and invisibility still persist. Simurgh feeds on bones. It has always contributed to creative artistic imageries. In these texts also thanks to Simurgh, very open similes and metaphors have been invented, but the object of comparison is not merely the poet and his beloved. The soul also acts as an object of comparison. In construction of compressed similes, it juxtaposes with soul, heart and love: Simurgh of the soul, Simurgh of the heart and Simurgh of love. When it comes to metaphors, the semantic and conceptual development of Simurgh symbolism is visible enough. This bird acts as a metaphor for God, a perfect man or the celestial subject of the poet. In philosophical texts, the residing place of Simurgh is either the Qaf mountain or beyond the material world. In philosophical works also the Simurgh has divine power and glory. Other features such as grandeur, powerfulness and flying agilely can be seen here as well.

The Simurgh’s feathers have healing quality. According to Suhrawardī, this bird makes music. It has a beak of fire and being a commander is its most important feature. According to Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa, Simurgh symbolizes justice. In imageries, there is no more open similies. In compressed similes, the soul is the object of comparison. Simurgh has been frequently employed as a metaphor for God, angel Gabriel, a lofty person, soul and talking soul. The more we take a distance from the pre-Islamic texts, Simurgh becomes less embodies and no mention is made of its nest and resting place.

In the early texts, Simurgh is a bird that is moving towards a point of becoming human-like. For example, In Avesta, its name   has been identified with a person called Simurgh. There, it continues with human characteristics and behaviors. In epic texts, Simurgh becomes more human-like to the point that the reader in some cases supposes that he/she is faced with a human. In lyrical texts, this resemblance to human becomes more. In the philosophical and mystical texts however Simurgh becomes less human-like and more God-like. This disembodiment makes it more viable for symbolism.

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[1] Elaheh Bayat Zarand  & Taghi Pour Namdarian

Keywords

• Simurgh
• symbol
• semantic meaning
• cultural memory
• intertextual meaning

Main Subjects

• Sufism and Mysticism