Persian Simurgh Has Risen

The Fabulous Simurgh Has Risen

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The fantastic Simurgh (meaning thirty birds; si means thirty, and murgh means bird), the mythical bird of ancient Persia, has maintained a significant presence in Persian culture. Simurgh is described in Persian art as a winged creature in the shape of a bird, gigantic enough to carry off an elephant or a whale. It appears as a peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion. The Simurgh is inherently benevolent and unambiguously female. Although Simurgh first appeared in Persian mythology, it went beyond the Persian borders as displayed under different names in Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Greek-Roman, Turkish and Slavic mythologies. The Simurgh resembles the western Phoenix. The Simurgh was said to be so old that she had seen the destruction of the world three times over. This afforded her so much wisdom and learning that she possessed the knowledge of all the ages.

The Simurgh appears in ancient Iranian literature in both the Avesta and Pahlavi languages.?She has lived from the classical Persian-language literature of medieval and pre-Modern Iran through to contemporary literature. The fabulous attributes given to this bird transform the Simurgh into a symbol, myth, and phenomenon.

The Simurgh has been portrayed in different Persian sources including Avesta, Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Rumi’s Masnavi and Attar’s Conference of the Birds. For this paper, I chose to focus on the last source.

In Mantiq Al-Taylor or the Conference of the Birds, Attar narrates the journey of the birds in search of Simurgh who signifies the divine presence. Thousands of birds came together to start their difficult journey. Attar introduced twelve kinds of birds: hoopoe, finch, partridge, falcon, francolin, parrot, nightingale, peacock, cock pheasant, pigeon, turtledove, and hawk. Each of these birds represents a type of character. They chose the hoopoe as their leader. Since the journey was long, some of them made excuses and declined to join the group. Some blamed their physical weakness as inadequate for this long journey, while others were too proud to look for the Simurgh. On their way, the birds encountered many doubts regarding their ego, pride, love, fear of death, bad luck and so on. Many of those on the journey died and finally, from the hundreds of thousands of birds, only thirty wounded, weak, and heartbroken birds survived.

At this final stage, they arrived at the city where the Simurgh lived. At the gate, they were advised by a messenger to go back, since they would not be able to witness the glory of the Simurgh. However, the birds’ determination convinced the messenger to open the gate to the world behind the veils, to the Light of Lights. The birds were astonished to see that their entire struggle was written down. Meanwhile, the Simurgh appeared. But all they saw was their own reflection. In the Light of the Lights they saw the Simurgh in themselves. The thirty birds were in fact the Simurgh. This is where the journey of the birds and their quest for the Simurgh ends.

Attar and other mystical writers attribute divine glory to the Simurgh and the metaphor of the Creator. One of the key characteristics of the Simurgh in Persian literature is the bird’s possession of Glory (Farr). There are several references to Farr in Avesta, one of which is that Iranian Farr belongs to all Iranians and can defeat Ahriman (enemies) of Iran, bestowing wisdom, wealth, and prosperity on Iranians. It is said that everyone shall try to seize the Farr (glory) which is hard to attain, but whoever attains it will be victorious over his enemies.

From the Sufi perspective, the concept of Farr has a luminous feature: “an inner light” guides the seeker along the way to reach eternal reality. The more s/he liberates her/himself from the worldly aspects of life and polishes the mirror of his heart, the closer s/he will come to the source of that light. Through his long and demanding process of purification and detachment, also called transformation, the heart will be gifted by love and gnosis.

In Persian mystical literature, the Simurgh acquires a new role: ?the perfection of the soul, the love of the creator, and the search for the true self. From this perspective, the fabulous Simurgh that has been the guardian of Persian heroes, protecting them with her wisdom and her glory, becomes a representation of the Divine.

In the following, I argue that myth of the Simurgh has come true in the current context of Iran. As mentioned earlier, the Simurgh is unmistakeably female, gigantic with long wings, powerful enough to carry an elephant. The current movement is Iran is undoubtedly feminine, as it started with a death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini. It has been led by women whose creativity gives them the courage and hope to continue their fight for their basic rights, rights that they have been deprived of for more than four decades. Since the inception of this movement, many other young and beautiful women have been killed. The Islamic Republic might think that it is able to suppress this feminine movement. In fact, with every person killed, the wings of the Simurgh become stronger and wider to pick up and throw away the old, ugly, and ill-favoured creature represented by the Islamic Republic.

The metaphor of the Simurgh’s wings in its strength and reach has both domestic and international applications. Domestically, we witness the unity and integration of Iranians from different ethnicities, ages, genders, and ideological backgrounds. Since ancient times, Iran has hosted very diverse ethnic groups who have lived together peacefully. It was, in fact, the Islamic Republic that made boundaries and divided the society into insiders versus outsiders, the former consisting of advocates of the Islamic Republic and the latter comprising the critics. The current movement aims not only to eradicate those divisions, but to fight for a glorious Iran, in which all Iranians live together in harmony. Internationally, like the ancient myth where the Simurgh passed the Persian borders, many countries in the world have proclaimed their solidarity with Iranian women.

One of the main attributes of?Simurgh is wisdom, acquired through her long life over the centuries. The new and young generation at the forefront of the current movement might be seen as inexperienced, and na?ve; in fact, they have learned valuable lessons from past generations. As opposed to their mother’s and grandmother’s generations, they are not easily intimidated; they do not tolerate ideas or ideologies that contradict universal human rights principles; they strongly insist on Life with Dignity. They are wise enough to defy any unreasonable limitations imposed by the misogynist government under the name of Islam to control every aspect of their lives. They are wise and strong enough to demonstrate the meaningful connection between dignified life and freedom for Women which gradually brings freedom to the whole society.

In Attar’s narration of the Simurgh, different kinds of birds came together to start their journey.?This is very similar to the current movement in Iran where different ethnicities, namely, Kurd, Fars, Lur, Baloch, Gilak, Azari, and Arabs have been unified around the same goal. Iran has not witnessed such unity even in the 1979 revolution. The difference, however, relies on the concept of willingness in these two narratives. According to Attar, when the birds realized the hardship and dangers of the journey, they justified their unwillingness. They preferred not to risk their lives and to continue as before. On the contrary, the Iranians, knowing of the very severe consequence of their action, i.e., death, are willing to take the risk and strongly exhibit their willingness to continue their journey until they achieve the desired change.

One of the features that Simurgh possesses is glory, or Farr in Farsi, which means inner light. Inner light has been seen as the crucial guide to reach and understand reality. It is crucial in the sense that no one without the inner light can comprehend reality. In the context of the current situation in Iran, I would argue that the inner light has the same role as a leader. In other words, this female-led movement has no leader, unlike the 1979 revolution. Some scholars believe that this lack of leadership may undermine the movement. On the contrary, I suggest that the leadership of this movement is not portrayed in one person, but is crystallized in the creativity and willingness of the Iranians. For instance, in one of the main universities in Tehran, the security forces divided female and male students in the self-service dining room. Female and male students protested and asked to dine together. They were repressed and the dining room was closed. The next day, all the students came together sat together and dined together on the campus. It is a very simple example of creativity and spontaneous action. One of the main signals of this movement is that the new and young generation is not seeking leaders who command them and ask for their loyalty and obedience. They have become adults logically and emotionally. They deny any guardianship. This new generation possesses the Inner Light that their mothers and grandmothers lacked. This Inner Light has been led and will lead this movement much better than any leaders. Moreover, this Inner Light would be progressive in the sense that it will lead the society to a better state, freer and more inclusive, while the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution attempted to revert Iran to a stage corresponding to over 1400 years ago when Islam came to power in the Arabian peninsula.

The current situation in Iran looks like an asymmetric war in which one party has the instruments, human resources and weapons to enforce coercive power, while the other party fights with its bare hands. Iranians do not possess weapons and, more importantly, do not fight back violently; nonetheless, they have a more powerful weapon: glory. According to ancient literature texts, whoever has glory will prevail over the enemies.

The Simurgh is also a symbol of the creator. The new and young generation will be the creator of new-born Iran. The creators of the new Iran are the fearless females who defy unreasonable limitations imposed by male-dominant ways of thinking. They have learned and experienced, although with a price too high, that any kind of discrimination leads to the privilege of one group of society over the rest. Therefore, as opposed to the founders of the Islamic Republic, they aim to create a society in which all Iranians from any ethnicity, with any background, can coexist peacefully. This generation creates a new society in which the “otherness” of Others will be respected. They are creating a society in which conflict and struggle will be replaced by conversation and dialogue. In sum, they are proving that the word will prevail over the sword.

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To conclude with a quote by Richard Bach:

"You didn't need faith to fly, you needed to understand flying. This is just the same. Now try again..." Then one day Jonathan, standing on the shore, closing his eyes, concentrating, all in a flash knew what Chiang had been telling him. "Why, that’s true! I AM a perfect, unlimited gull!" He felt a great shock of joy.

?-Jonathan Livingstone Seagull