Iraj Bashiri, "From the Hymns of Zarathustra to the Songs of Borbad"
Zoroaster
... According to Boyce's calculation, therefore, Zoroaster died in BC 930 or 923.
According to the Gathas, Zoroaster spent much of his youth meditating in the desert, seeking an answer to the riddle of existence. Zoroaster's search to find a way which would lead to prosperity in this world as well as in the hereafter apparently culminated in the recognition of an omniscient mind (Mazda) as the creator and benefactor of cattle, plants, and humanity. The very simplicity of the prophet's query regarding the warp and woof of the cosmos indicates the depth of his vision and promises immortality for his message:
Who was the father of Righteousness at the birth?
Who appointed their path to sun and the stars?
Who but [T]hou is it through whom the moon waxes and wanes?
Who set the Earth below in its place and the sky of the clouds,
that it shall not fall?
Who [created] the waters and the plants?
Who yoked their swift steed to wind and clouds?
Who, O Wise One, is the creator of Good Mind?
What artificer made both light and darkness?
What artificer made sleeping and waking?
Who made morning, noon, and night,
That remind the wise man of his task?
Until the end of the 17th century, very little was known about Zoroaster and his religion. The rediscovery of the ancient texts of the faith by the French traveler Anquetil Du Perron shed new light on the achievements of Zoroaster and revealed a new vista on our understanding of his religion. The discovery and translation of the books of the faith such as the Vendidad and the Bundahishn further opened the way to an understanding of the principles of the religion and of Zoroaster's view of our place in the cosmos and our relation to the Maker...
___________________________________________
Khusrau I Anushiravan
...
Once roads and bridges were rebuilt, villages were rehabilitated, canals were cleaned, and lost livestock were restored to the people, commerce picked up and the quality of life in the realm was improved.
Ctesiphon became the hub of economic activity, and artisans, poets, and sages from all around flooded the court. The sages sought to hold discussions about medicine, philosophy, and astronomy with their colleagues at the court of the shah, especially with his well-known court minister, Buzurgmihr. Among these savants of the age were seven Roman refugees who, following the closure of the ancient academy of Athens in AD 529, had been invited to Iran. They were greatly instrumental in establishing the medical college of Gundishapur in the city of the same name...
___________________________________________
Khusrau II (Parviz)
Khusrau Parviz is known to have had three sources of joy: his beloved wife, Shirin his musician, Borbad and his horse, Shabdiz. Borbad's life story sheds light on the life of the court as a whole
Although there is no hard evidence on Borbad's date of birth, 60 we can estimate that he was born towards the end of the sixth century, somewhere between AD 580 and 590. This estimate is based on Firdowsi's assertion that Borbad was a young musician at the court of Khusrau Parviz at the turn of the seventh century, i.e., sometime between 600 and 610.
Borbad's place of birth, too, is yet to be established. Early sources (Musa Ibn-i Isa-i Kasravi, Abu Ishaq-i Istakhri, Abu Mansur-i Tha'alibi, and others) relate him to the city of Merv, a major center of culture during the Sassanian era. Iranian literature in general also refers to him as Borbad-i Marvazi. The contradicting sources include the seventh century Arabian poet Khalid Faizi and Zakariya-i Qazvini (1203-1283). The latter, in his Asar al-Bilad wa Akhbar al-Ibad refers to the town of Jahrum, in Fars Province, as the birthplace of the bard. The most logical place for the development of the musician's talent, however, seems to have been Merv.
At the time of his arrival at the court of Khusrau Parviz in Ctesiphon (Madain), Borbad was already an accomplished musician. He seems to have begun at the lower courts and gradually worked his way up to the higher courts, quite in the same way that Farrukhi Sistani visited'Amid Asad and Abu al-Muzaffar Ahmad Ibn-i Muhammad Chaghani before entering the service of the Samanid amirs of Bukhara.
In Ctesiphon, Borbad came in contact with Sarkash, a harp player, who headed the king's entertainment department. Every new artist, before he could be heard by the king, was examined by Sarkash. Borbad was no exception. Upon hearing Borbad's wonderful voice and appreciating his skill, the aging Sarkash recognized the threat that the young musician posed. He left instructions to keep the young musician away from the court.
Borbad, too, realized that as long as Sarkash was Khusrau Parviz's chief of entertainment, the gate of the court was closed to him. He, therefore, entered the king's pleasure palace with the assistance of a friend - the king's chamberlain.
One night, when the king was being entertained, he camouflaged himself among the high branches of a nearby tree by wearing green clothes.
When the king's goblet was filled, he sang "Dadafarid (source of justice)", his first song for the occasion. The king was pleased. He ordered the garden to be searched and the musician to be found and brought to him. Borbad could not be found.
When the king's cup was filled a second time, Borbad sang his second song called "Paikar-i Gurd (Battle of the brave)". Again the king ordered the premises to be searched and again Borbad could not be found.
When the king's goblet was filled for the third time, Borbad sang his "Sabz dar Sabz (green on green)". Hearing that, the king drank deep. Then he rose and said:
Search all the garden and the flower-beds
To left and right, for I will fill his mouth
And lap with gems, and he shall be chief minstrel.
Upon hearing that Borbad climbed down, introduced himself, and stood aside.
Sarkash was shamed by the discovery. Turning to him, the shah said:
Unskilful one,
Like colocynth while he is sugar-like!
Why didst thou bar his access to me thus?
Thy harp is banished from this company.
Borbad retained the status of "king of bards" at Parviz's court for some 18 to 20 years thereafter.
Like the date of his birth, the time and circumstances of Borbad's death are also unknown. Some sources report that he was poisoned by Sarkash while Khusrau Parviz was still living. Others attribute his death to the jealousy of other bards. Still others state that he survived Khusrau Parviz but left the court during the rule of Shiruyeh. The latter scenario further states that Borbad went to Isfahan and lived the rest of his life in that city.
Borbad is reported to have composed songs for every month and every day of the year. A skillful artist and the king's companion, he could relay the most distressing news to the Khusrau without being chastised. For instance, Khusrau Parviz had said that whoever brought him the news of the death of his horse, Shabdiz, would be executed. When Shabdiz died, Borbad wrote a song. In it he conveyed the sad news without verbalizing it. Hearing that the king said:
"You sing as if Shabdiz were dead!"
Borbad retorted: "Your majesty, you said it yourself."
___________________________________________
The End of the Empire
The Sassanian Empire grew rich in wealth as well as in art and culture. While the consolidation years were spent in wars, the latter years were spent in harvesting the fruits of those wars. Philosophers, physicians, artists, and poets flooded the court of the king of kings to meet their peers and to contribute to the culture of their time. Many games, including the games of chess and backgammon, were made at this time as were the "star table," the predecessor of many later Islamic tables, and a special alphabet for the Avestan language. The codification of the Avesta, the gathering of the history of ancient Iran, and the writing of the "Khudayname", the source book for Firdowsi's "Shahname", were all undertaken at this time. The mood of the age, however, is best captured in a Middle Persian text, a legacy of the Sassanian scribes, explaining the invention of the game of chess in India and of the game of backgammon in Iran.
___________________________________________
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Zorobar/Zorobar.html
___________________________________________
Khudayname
The Sassanians held a unique place among Iranian rulers. Since they were a priestly family catapulted into the rulership of western Iran, they were both the makers of recorded history and the custodians of ancient Iranian religious traditions.
Under the Sassanians, therefore, the church chronicles gained state sanction and became a part of recorded history. To commemorate the union of church and state, the mu'bads and the court officials cooperated in compiling a single compendium of Iranian history, including the contents of the court archives and the church chronicles.
The result was the Khudayname, a compendium that encompassed Iranian lore spanning the formation of Iranian lands, the breaking away of Turan, the emergence of Zoroaster, to the rule of the contemporary Sassanian dynasty.
After the fall of Iran to the armies of Islam in the seventh century, the Khudayname was translated from Pahlavi into Arabic.
Based on such translations, in the early years of the tenth century, Abu al-Mu'ayyid Balkhi authored a most voluminous and authoritative prose Shahname. This and another similar compilation by Abu 'Ali Muhammad Ibn-i Ahmad Balkhi were accessible to Firdowsi. Also available to him was a Shahname commissioned by the Samanid ruler Abu Mansur al-Mu'amari.
This compilation, completed in AD 957-58 and known as the Shahname-i Abu Mansuri, served both as the symbol of the legitimacy of the Samanids of Bukhara and as Firdowsi's major source. That the compilation had been undertaken by four Zoroastrian priests is important because it indicates a more accurate transmission of materials at a time when Zoroastrianism was no longer the official religion of Iran. Regarding the composition of the book, Firdowsi admits:
All have gone sweeping in the garth of lore
And what I tell hath all been told before [9]
______________________________________
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Farr/Firdowsi.html
... According to Boyce's calculation, therefore, Zoroaster died in BC 930 or 923.
According to the Gathas, Zoroaster spent much of his youth meditating in the desert, seeking an answer to the riddle of existence. Zoroaster's search to find a way which would lead to prosperity in this world as well as in the hereafter apparently culminated in the recognition of an omniscient mind (Mazda) as the creator and benefactor of cattle, plants, and humanity. The very simplicity of the prophet's query regarding the warp and woof of the cosmos indicates the depth of his vision and promises immortality for his message:
Who was the father of Righteousness at the birth?
Who appointed their path to sun and the stars?
Who but [T]hou is it through whom the moon waxes and wanes?
Who set the Earth below in its place and the sky of the clouds,
that it shall not fall?
Who [created] the waters and the plants?
Who yoked their swift steed to wind and clouds?
Who, O Wise One, is the creator of Good Mind?
What artificer made both light and darkness?
What artificer made sleeping and waking?
Who made morning, noon, and night,
That remind the wise man of his task?
Until the end of the 17th century, very little was known about Zoroaster and his religion. The rediscovery of the ancient texts of the faith by the French traveler Anquetil Du Perron shed new light on the achievements of Zoroaster and revealed a new vista on our understanding of his religion. The discovery and translation of the books of the faith such as the Vendidad and the Bundahishn further opened the way to an understanding of the principles of the religion and of Zoroaster's view of our place in the cosmos and our relation to the Maker...
___________________________________________
Khusrau I Anushiravan
...
Once roads and bridges were rebuilt, villages were rehabilitated, canals were cleaned, and lost livestock were restored to the people, commerce picked up and the quality of life in the realm was improved.
Ctesiphon became the hub of economic activity, and artisans, poets, and sages from all around flooded the court. The sages sought to hold discussions about medicine, philosophy, and astronomy with their colleagues at the court of the shah, especially with his well-known court minister, Buzurgmihr. Among these savants of the age were seven Roman refugees who, following the closure of the ancient academy of Athens in AD 529, had been invited to Iran. They were greatly instrumental in establishing the medical college of Gundishapur in the city of the same name...
___________________________________________
Khusrau II (Parviz)
Khusrau Parviz is known to have had three sources of joy: his beloved wife, Shirin his musician, Borbad and his horse, Shabdiz. Borbad's life story sheds light on the life of the court as a whole
Although there is no hard evidence on Borbad's date of birth, 60 we can estimate that he was born towards the end of the sixth century, somewhere between AD 580 and 590. This estimate is based on Firdowsi's assertion that Borbad was a young musician at the court of Khusrau Parviz at the turn of the seventh century, i.e., sometime between 600 and 610.
Borbad's place of birth, too, is yet to be established. Early sources (Musa Ibn-i Isa-i Kasravi, Abu Ishaq-i Istakhri, Abu Mansur-i Tha'alibi, and others) relate him to the city of Merv, a major center of culture during the Sassanian era. Iranian literature in general also refers to him as Borbad-i Marvazi. The contradicting sources include the seventh century Arabian poet Khalid Faizi and Zakariya-i Qazvini (1203-1283). The latter, in his Asar al-Bilad wa Akhbar al-Ibad refers to the town of Jahrum, in Fars Province, as the birthplace of the bard. The most logical place for the development of the musician's talent, however, seems to have been Merv.
At the time of his arrival at the court of Khusrau Parviz in Ctesiphon (Madain), Borbad was already an accomplished musician. He seems to have begun at the lower courts and gradually worked his way up to the higher courts, quite in the same way that Farrukhi Sistani visited'Amid Asad and Abu al-Muzaffar Ahmad Ibn-i Muhammad Chaghani before entering the service of the Samanid amirs of Bukhara.
In Ctesiphon, Borbad came in contact with Sarkash, a harp player, who headed the king's entertainment department. Every new artist, before he could be heard by the king, was examined by Sarkash. Borbad was no exception. Upon hearing Borbad's wonderful voice and appreciating his skill, the aging Sarkash recognized the threat that the young musician posed. He left instructions to keep the young musician away from the court.
Borbad, too, realized that as long as Sarkash was Khusrau Parviz's chief of entertainment, the gate of the court was closed to him. He, therefore, entered the king's pleasure palace with the assistance of a friend - the king's chamberlain.
One night, when the king was being entertained, he camouflaged himself among the high branches of a nearby tree by wearing green clothes.
When the king's goblet was filled, he sang "Dadafarid (source of justice)", his first song for the occasion. The king was pleased. He ordered the garden to be searched and the musician to be found and brought to him. Borbad could not be found.
When the king's cup was filled a second time, Borbad sang his second song called "Paikar-i Gurd (Battle of the brave)". Again the king ordered the premises to be searched and again Borbad could not be found.
When the king's goblet was filled for the third time, Borbad sang his "Sabz dar Sabz (green on green)". Hearing that, the king drank deep. Then he rose and said:
Search all the garden and the flower-beds
To left and right, for I will fill his mouth
And lap with gems, and he shall be chief minstrel.
Upon hearing that Borbad climbed down, introduced himself, and stood aside.
Sarkash was shamed by the discovery. Turning to him, the shah said:
Unskilful one,
Like colocynth while he is sugar-like!
Why didst thou bar his access to me thus?
Thy harp is banished from this company.
Borbad retained the status of "king of bards" at Parviz's court for some 18 to 20 years thereafter.
Like the date of his birth, the time and circumstances of Borbad's death are also unknown. Some sources report that he was poisoned by Sarkash while Khusrau Parviz was still living. Others attribute his death to the jealousy of other bards. Still others state that he survived Khusrau Parviz but left the court during the rule of Shiruyeh. The latter scenario further states that Borbad went to Isfahan and lived the rest of his life in that city.
Borbad is reported to have composed songs for every month and every day of the year. A skillful artist and the king's companion, he could relay the most distressing news to the Khusrau without being chastised. For instance, Khusrau Parviz had said that whoever brought him the news of the death of his horse, Shabdiz, would be executed. When Shabdiz died, Borbad wrote a song. In it he conveyed the sad news without verbalizing it. Hearing that the king said:
"You sing as if Shabdiz were dead!"
Borbad retorted: "Your majesty, you said it yourself."
___________________________________________
The End of the Empire
The Sassanian Empire grew rich in wealth as well as in art and culture. While the consolidation years were spent in wars, the latter years were spent in harvesting the fruits of those wars. Philosophers, physicians, artists, and poets flooded the court of the king of kings to meet their peers and to contribute to the culture of their time. Many games, including the games of chess and backgammon, were made at this time as were the "star table," the predecessor of many later Islamic tables, and a special alphabet for the Avestan language. The codification of the Avesta, the gathering of the history of ancient Iran, and the writing of the "Khudayname", the source book for Firdowsi's "Shahname", were all undertaken at this time. The mood of the age, however, is best captured in a Middle Persian text, a legacy of the Sassanian scribes, explaining the invention of the game of chess in India and of the game of backgammon in Iran.
___________________________________________
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Zorobar/Zorobar.html
___________________________________________
Khudayname
The Sassanians held a unique place among Iranian rulers. Since they were a priestly family catapulted into the rulership of western Iran, they were both the makers of recorded history and the custodians of ancient Iranian religious traditions.
Under the Sassanians, therefore, the church chronicles gained state sanction and became a part of recorded history. To commemorate the union of church and state, the mu'bads and the court officials cooperated in compiling a single compendium of Iranian history, including the contents of the court archives and the church chronicles.
The result was the Khudayname, a compendium that encompassed Iranian lore spanning the formation of Iranian lands, the breaking away of Turan, the emergence of Zoroaster, to the rule of the contemporary Sassanian dynasty.
After the fall of Iran to the armies of Islam in the seventh century, the Khudayname was translated from Pahlavi into Arabic.
Based on such translations, in the early years of the tenth century, Abu al-Mu'ayyid Balkhi authored a most voluminous and authoritative prose Shahname. This and another similar compilation by Abu 'Ali Muhammad Ibn-i Ahmad Balkhi were accessible to Firdowsi. Also available to him was a Shahname commissioned by the Samanid ruler Abu Mansur al-Mu'amari.
This compilation, completed in AD 957-58 and known as the Shahname-i Abu Mansuri, served both as the symbol of the legitimacy of the Samanids of Bukhara and as Firdowsi's major source. That the compilation had been undertaken by four Zoroastrian priests is important because it indicates a more accurate transmission of materials at a time when Zoroastrianism was no longer the official religion of Iran. Regarding the composition of the book, Firdowsi admits:
All have gone sweeping in the garth of lore
And what I tell hath all been told before [9]
______________________________________
http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Farr/Firdowsi.html