Special to WorldTribune.com

By Sheda Vasseghi, FreePressers.com

Reading Wafa Tarnowska’s English translation of “The Seven Wise Princesses” (Persian “Haft Peykar”) in prose originally by one of greatest Iranian romantic poets, Nezami (1141-1209), shocks the common sense.

The story revolves around Iranian kings such as Yazdgerd and Bahram during pre-Islamic Sasanian Persia era (224-651). But according to Tarnowska, the Persian Zoroastrian kings such as Yazdgerd pray to the Arab Muslim god Allah! This is equivalent to reading a novel post-Christianity written by a Christian about ancient Greeks and the sun god Helios, but having them pray to Jesus! Even a fictional literary work has to maintain some integrity and credibility.

In response to an inquiry to the publisher about why a Persian Zoroastrian king prior to the emergence of Islam would pray to Allah, the following response from the author was passed on by Barefoot Books: “I choose allah which means god in Arabic (not just the Muslim God) because the poem is a Persian Muslim Sufi epic (written in verse) in the 12th century – so during Islamic times in Iran – but it talks about a Zoroastrian king, Bahram, who lived before Islam. I thought it was too complicated to have two gods for the children to learn about and to introduce Zoroastrianism to them. I mention the religion briefly at the end of the story with the fire in the temple.”

Following that distorted logic, author Tarnowska translated the poem to English not Arabic, and as such she should have used the generic English word “God” instead of the Arabic word “Allah.” Further, post-Islam Iranians did not confuse their heritage with that of foreign Arab version imposed on them as well as others in the region.

Nezami and other medieval Iranian authors and scholars such as Ferdowsi did not refer to their native Zoroastrian god as Allah. Tarnowska is incorrect in giving the impression that believing in Zoroastrianism is not significantly different enough to explain to the readers in that they have very different roots and teachings leading to two distinct cultural legacies. The fact that a modern writer chooses to make such a fundamental change and defend it is unethical, to say the least!

Iranian heritage and culture post-7th century after the onslaught of Arab Muslim invaders has been and is in danger. One of the main reasons is 33 years of an Islamic-based government in Tehran that promotes Islamism rather than Iranian nationalism. In addition, a majority of educational institutions refer to the post 7th century Iranian arts and architecture as the nonsensical term “Islamic” arts and architecture, and in many cases, the words and connections among peoples of Iranian stock are willfully left out of brochures, websites, articles, and textbooks.

The majority of medieval Middle Eastern artwork has nothing to do with Islamic views or promotion of that religion thereof. As a matter of fact, they are mostly secular in nature or contrary to Islamic beliefs. The fact that the works were done post-Islam does not qualify them as Islamic.

Just as in the West, medieval arts filled with Christian imagery are not categorized as Christian, but rather by various artistic formats such as Gothic, Mannerism and Romanticism, or regionally as in French, Dutch and Italian. Notable Eastern persons, who lived and contributed to human civilization post-Arab Muslim invasion, are mostly referred to as “Muslim” or “Islamic” which makes no sense as neither of those terms refers to a national identity or geographic location.

Berkshire Museum has an exhibition entitled “Clues to the Ancient World,” but leaves out the Persians from its list of ancient peoples. After all, by 6th century BCE, the Persians created the first world empire (Achaemenid Persian Empire) that lasted 220 years with some 28 nations covering an est. 3,000,000 square miles inhabited by 45 percent of the then world population, a record that has not yet been broken according to the 2012 edition of the Guinness book of world records.

Textbooks, research institutions, educators, and museums are following a policy which has in time erased Iranian legacy and influences by either completely deleting any and all cultural connections, or putting them under an erroneous Arabic or Islamic genre. This gross misrepresentation and attack on a culture is best understood when compared to Western civilization.

For example, 11th century Iranian polymath Avicenna is often referred to as “Muslim” or “Arab” just because he lived at a time when being employed in the Middle East meant having to write in Arabic.

The same rule, however, is not applied to Western notable persons. Michelangelo is listed as a notable artist from Florence, not as a Christian artist. Even for other Eastern historical figures, an aristocrat Usama ibn Munqidh is referred to as a Syrian Arab Muslim, but the same paragraph fails to identify one of the most important medieval Middle Eastern warrior-kings Salah ad-Din (Saladin) as a Kurd (Iranian stock). That is, Saladin is only identified as “Muslim” which is a religious identification, not a place of origin.

Historians, who label ancient peoples such as the Germanic tribes or Scythian nomads as “barbarians” for not having cities and bureaucracies or written languages, choose not to give the same reference to ancient Arabs from the deserts of Arabian Peninsula. As for alleged Arab fame for poetry, none of the experts provide names of Arab poets still famous around the world. The ones they do name are all Iranians, but of course, the textbooks are careful not to disclose their origin. Globally famous poets such as Saadi, Hafez, Rumi and Khayyam are usually labeled “Islamic” or “Muslim” in perpetuating this unethical behavior against people of Iranian stock.

A 2012 history textbook went so far as to state “[Muslim] poets writing in Persian enjoyed great renown. The best known of these is Umar Khayyam.” Khayyam did not write in Persian for the sake of it. He wrote in Persian because he was Persian. However the textbook leads the reader to believe that he is an Arab or a “Muslim”, who happens to write in Persian. Labeling Khayyam as a Muslim poet is further comical in that his poetry is contrary to religious beliefs.

The following is an English translation of a poem by Khayyam showing his secular tendencies:

“They say Hades is for the intoxicated
A disputed oath to pardon
For if lovers and wine drinkers are doomed to hell
Morrow you’d see a barren celestial Garden”
(translation by Sheda Vasseghi)

A majority of textbooks claim ancient Greek wisdom and other knowledge was transferred to medieval Europe through Arabic texts, but they fail to note that the Arabic texts themselves were translations of Persian books accumulated and written pre-Islamic era during Sasanian Persian Empire.

Among a plethora of examples is a catalogue of the 2004 “Asia: Body, Mind, Spirit” exhibition in London which reads: “Arabs not only inherited and preserved the Greek corpus of medicine, they further modified and developed it…many physicians in the Islamic world were outstanding medical teachers and practitioners. Avicenna (980-1037 CE) was born near Bokhara…although Arabic was not the native tongue of these great physicians, they wrote in Arabic, the language of science and learning in the Islamic world.” This is a very clever, intentional and typical way in not disclosing that many of these documents were originally in Middle Persian (Pahlavi) later translated to Arabic, and that Persian was the native language of such notable scholars as Avicenna.

In a recent college history textbook on Western Civilization for the first time one may note that the famous Cyrus Cylinder believed to be the first known human civil rights decree by Persian king Cyrus the Great of 6th c. BCE is being referred to as the “Inscription Honoring Cyrus.” The students have no idea that this decree ordered all slaves in Babylon including the Jews be set free to return to their native lands should they wish. That is, one of the greatest national deeds by Iranians and the concept that defines their national identity and pride is arbitrarily marginalized and altered.

Textbooks that treat European colonialism era negatively including its effects on the natives remain silent on the similar Arab Muslim policies of 7th century onwards. With respect to the East, Arab Muslim invasions are portrayed as “deliverance” for the peoples in various regions, who were allegedly tired of their own native governments. The Arab Muslim slaughter of local priests such as Zoroastrian magis or burning of tens of thousands of books such as those in the libraries of the Sasanian Persian Empire, including centuries of slavery especially of non-Arabs and non-Muslims from across the East and the West are also either not mentioned or lightly treated.

Unlike how historians negatively portray slavery in the West in having robbed people of their natural rights and dignity, they misrepresent slavery under Arab Muslims by suggesting it was not so bad in that it afforded poor parents to provide opportunities for their children.

A current textbook on Middle Eastern history claims Islam does not ban slavery but encourages treating slaves kindly and even their liberation. This is nonsense as abolitionism was a Western movement, and according to a 2012 report from the U.S. State Department, the top nations with the worst record on human trafficking today are nations with majority Muslim population under Islamic laws such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Kuwait http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/news/algeria-libya-syria-kuwait-iran-and-saudi-on-slavery-blacklist_7534.

The Western institutions may be masking Iranian identity in relation to arts and architecture and contributions to human civilization, but Arab-based organizations are blatantly putting their stamp on them. According to American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee with more than three decades of advocacy and achievement, “the famous scientist-philosopher known in Europe as Avicenna was Ibn Sina, an Arab.”

Hiding Iranian affiliations and contributions to human civilization especially hurts Western civilization given how early European history was strongly based on people of Iranian stock such as Persians, Scythians and Phrygians, not to mention the artistic influences of Sasanian Persian Empire via the Byzantine Empire that entered the courts of early medieval Europe.

The military weapons, knighhood and chivalry, including court fashion and setup were adopted from ancient and medieval Iranians. Intimate artwork such as the shrouds of early European saints and one of the most powerful early European kings, Charlemagne, are silk designs with Iranian motifs.

The American Founding Fathers discussed the ancient Roman Empire as well as the Persian Empire during the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. The West is not doing itself any favors by allowing Islamist money mostly supporting Arab interests in altering its own founding roots which are based on the combined Iranian-Greek-Roman heritage.

Sheda Vasseghi is on the Board of Azadegan Foundation, and is a regular contributor to Freepressers.com and WorldTribune.com on Iran’s Affairs. Join the Official Site of Sheda Vasseghi on Facebook.

  Berkshire Museum, Charlemagne, emergence on Islam, Nezami, The nonstop assault on Iranian history and heritage, The Seven Wise Princesses, Umar Khayyam, Zoroastrianism