I r a n i n Wo r l d H i s t o r y
26
and Albert and British Museums in London, is believed to have origi-
nated from the temple at Takht-e Sangin.
In another example of syncretism from the Seleucid period, Greek
sculpture is thought to have stimulated the emergence of Buddhist art
in the Gandhara region of northwest India, the meeting ground of
Iranian and Indic cultures. In Iran proper, the proliferation of statues
representing deities—in particular the goddess Anahita during the
time of Artaxerxes II—is attributed to Hellenistic influence as well.
A cult of the Greek hero Heracles became
quite widespread in west-
ern Iran; a statue of him projects from the rock at Bisotun not far
from Darius’s royal inscription. Farther west, the Seleucid city of
Dura-Europos on the Euphrates River (in what is now eastern Syria)
was a melting pot of Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Jews, and Persians. In
addition to Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Mithraism, various pagan
cults co-existed, each leaving traces in the form of inscriptions and
iconography.
Despite the hybrid culture that flourished under the Seleucids, their
authority was constantly threatened from all sides. This threat included
the increasing power of Rome in the West and
that of the Indian Mauryas
in the East, as well as frequent local revolts from within. As early as
250 bce the Greek satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I, declared indepen-
dence from the Seleucids and established a Graeco-Bactrian kingdom
that survived for a little more than a century. Numerous Hellenistic
remains have been found at sites in northern Afghanistan, especially
at Ay Khanum where the ruins of Alexandria-on-the-Oxus have been
excavated. The city’s layout is typically Greek, including a theater and
a gymnasium—along with an architecturally Zoroastrian Temple of
Zeus, further evidence of the blending of Greek and Iranian religion
that had taken place in the region.
Both
the idea of paradise, conceived as a garden, and the symbol of
the halo, which was originally an indication of divine investiture, were
transmitted to the West as a result of Persian contact with the Greeks
and are attested through countless examples in religion, art, and archi-
tecture. These Iranian notions date back at least to the Achaemenid
period if not earlier.
The English word “paradise” traces back, through French, Latin,
and Greek, to the Avestan term
pairi daeza
, which meant “walled
enclosure.” Since the ancient Iranians were pioneers in the irrigation
of arid lands through their system of underground channels (
qanat
s), it
is not surprising that they perceived their gardens as islands of heaven
in the desert. The Achaemenids saw the construction of gardens as a
I r a n a n d t h e G r e e k s
27
way
of improving the world, which is a central ethical imperative in
Zoroastrianism.
The typical Iranian garden is a quadrangle transected into smaller
squares by straight channels of running water. This design (called
chahar bagh
in Persian) can be seen on pottery dating as far back as
four thousand years. After the Arab conquests in the seventh century,
Muslim settlers built Iranian gardens throughout their new empire,
stretching across North Africa and into Andalusia (southern Spain).
The Spanish and Portuguese later introduced the Iranian garden design
into the Western Hemisphere, where it can be seen throughout Latin
America and places such as New Orleans in the United States. Persian
carpets often feature complex garden designs—a way of bringing para-
dise into the home.
Eram (“Heaven”) Garden in Shiraz was built in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Old Persian term
pairi daeza
—adopted into Greek as
paradaisos
—referred
to a walled garden, and since ancient times Iranian gardens have served as a
metaphor for paradise on earth. The model of the Persian garden, consisting
of quadrangles bisected by channels of running water, spread to India, Central
Asia, and North Africa, and from there the Spanish and Portuguese took it to
the New World.
Photo by author
I r a n i n Wo r l d H i s t o r y
28
The symbol of the halo, which like the notion of paradise became
highly visible in Christianity and Islam, derives from the ancient Iranian
concept of
khvaraneh
, or divine blessing. As
early as the Young Avesta
around the eighth century bce,
khvaraneh
is associated with the divine
right of kingship. In other words, in Iranian tradition—as in numerous
other Indo-European traditions including the English—kings rule as
regents of the divine, though not as gods in their own right as in Egypt,
for example. If they do not rule justly, this charisma will leave them and
attach itself to another.
In Iranian art,
khvaraneh
is symbolized by light radiating around
the head of the king. The Greeks and Romans borrowed both the con-
cept (Greek
tyche basileos
; Latin
fortuna regia
) and the symbolism, later
leading to the use of halos to signify holy figures in Christianity. Later
still,
Islamic art represented
khvaraneh
(or
farr
, in modern Persian) not
by a golden ring about the head but as fire; it is used to designate pro-
phetic status, adorning images of such figures as Adam, Noah, Joseph,
Muhammad, and others.
