Iranian Identity in the U.S. 1 of 2

Iranian Identity in the U.S. Michael Craig Hillmann, 082019

Irān…Iranian…Persia…Persian •

“Irān” ‫ن‬ [‫ ] ایرا‬is the indigenous name for the country and denotes “of/relating to Aryans.”

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“Persia” is a Western coinage, based on the Persian word “P ārs” [‫ ] پپپاپ رس‬or “Fārs [‫پپاپپرس‬ ‫] ف‬, the name of the ancient central Iranian land in the south/southwestern part of today’s Iran and the name of the province of which the city Shir āz is the capital. No signifcant migration into Iran has taken place since the 10th/11th century CE [= A.D.].

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The words “Iranian” and “Persian” are likewise used synonymously. “Persian” is used more than “Iranian” in talking about the country’s art, e.g., “Persian carpets.” The word “Iranian” is used more than “Persian” in talking about history and politics, e.g., “the Iranian government.”

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“Persian” is also the name of the national language of Iran called «‫ی‬ ‫پپاپپرس‬ ‫[ » ف‬Fārsi] in Persian. The variety of the Fārsi Persian language spoken in Iran today came into existence in the 9 th/10th century CE.

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The phrase “Persian Iranians” refers to Iranians whose native language is Persian and/or who think of themselves as descended from Indo-European speakers of Persian, as opposed to ( Āzarb āyj āni) Turkish, Kurdish, Bakhtiyāri, or Torkaman Iranians. Persian Iranians are called «‫پپاپپرس‬ ‫[ » ف‬Fārs] in Persian.

ā = ‘a’ in “father” a = ‘a’ in ”hat”

Culture: “The aggregate of knowledge/learning and historical monuments/works/traces and legacies left behind and characteristics of the historical legacy/heritage of every nation/people, consisting of: knowledge/learning, language vocabulary, literature, religion and beliefs, crafts/techniques/industries, style(s) of architecture and city planning, folklore, customs and manner of social intercourse, style/method of education and manner of living, kinds of melodies and subjects of painting and other arts, and, likewise, characteristics of behavior and disposition, and kinds of clothing and food, and all of the manifestations of a people's life. From the viewpoint of anthropology, culture is a human creation and humanity transfers it in a nonliving way to its to descendants. Culture is the most mutual/shared characteristic of human beings. The majority of theoreticians presumably consider language, tool making and regulation of sexual rules as the important determining qualities of the superiority of human beings over other higher mammals.”

Quoted from: The Complete Persian Dictionary, compiled by Gholâmrezâ Ensâfpur. Tehran: Zavvâr Publishers, 1373 [1994/5]. 783 pages.

Iranian and Iranian American Self Views in the U.S.

Iran PowerPoint Shows and Talks Slide shows available online at www.Issuu.com/Michael Hillmann and, upon request, through e-mail via WeTransfer • Iranian Identity in the U.S. • • • •

Symbols and Flags of Iran from Antiquity to the 21 st Century Iran’s Rulers and Invasions from 559 BCE to 2019 CE Twenty Symbols of Iran and Iranians Iran: Postage Stamps

• American Perceptions of Islam 1 and 2 • Rumi (1207-1273) and the Persian Sufi Poetic Tradition (with a comparison to Khayyām and Hāfez) • Classic Persian Art Objects • Modern Iranian Painting • Three 21st Century Interpretations of Ferdowsi’s Shāhnāmeh • Discovering the World of Persian Carpets • The Cultural Import of Persian Carpet Designs • An Aesthetics of Persian Carpets • Modernism in Forugh Farrokhzād’s The Wall (1955) • The Iranian Women’s Woman, 1963-1978

ā = ‘a’ in “father” a = ‘a’ in ”hat”

Irān

• land bridge • crossroads • high plateau • mountains • mountain foothills • plains • salt deserts • Caspian littoral • Gulf littoral • scarcity of water • brown landscape • wide, forbidding vistas _____________ • springtime greenness • gardens

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Iran and Surrounding Countries

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A land bridge, crossroads country in the Middle East, Iran has a strategic location and geopolitical significance.

Iran is the world’s 18th largest country by area.

(1,648,000 sq.km, Texas 695,662 sq.km, California 423,970 sq.km.)

Iran is the world’s 18th most populous country (88,000,000+ million).

Iran is perhaps the most stable and powerful larger country in the Middle East.

Iran seems a problematic polity to/for the USA, especially since the “Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981) Iran is or will become a nuclear power.

Iran has significant natural resources.

Iran is the largest Shi’ite Muslim country in the world.

Iran has more influence in and on Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Iraq than any other country in the region.

Iran has some control over the Persian Gulf.

Iran played significant roles in world history during the Achaemenid Empire (559-330 BCE) and the Sāsānid Empire (224-651 CE).

From the 10th through the 15th centuries CE, Iran was home to world-significant modes of artistic expression, for example, Persian poetry, Persian miniature painting, and Islamic architecture.

Iran played a significant role in the Middle Eastern world during the Safavid Empire (1501-1722 CE), the Ottoman Empire to its west and the Moghul to its east. Persian carpets became a primary craft and art form during the Safavid era.

Iran has played a significant role in the Middle East since the early 20th century. ………………………………………………………………………………………... ………………………………………………………………………………………... ………………………………………………………………………………………... ……………………………………………………………………………………… ...

An old caravanserai in the Dasht-e Lut [Lut salt flats desert] in east central Iran. • According to the World Bank 9% of the land in Iran is arable and Iran has 260 mm average annual rainfall.

Typical Iranian Plateau Mountain Foothills Countryside

• On the Iranian plateau, trees and greenery mostly grow only where irrigation takes place.

Political and Land Utilization Maps of Iran

• 88,000,000+ people (2015).

• 10% of Iran is arable (2009), •Iran has 260 mm average annual rainfall.

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Typical Iranian Plateau Countryside

• On the plains of Iran, trees and greenery mostly grow only where irrigation takes place.

Iranian New Years Stamps 1975

Shâh ‘Abbāsi motif

cypress trees

botehs [bushes]

On the occasion of the opening of the Royal Tehran Hilton in 1962

• This stamp suggests that the Pahlavi government (rued 1925-1979) thought that the existence of a Hilton hotel in Tehrān signaled that Iran had arrived and was up-to-date.

• Years later, shortly before they fled Iran, Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and his third wife Farah Dibā Pahlavi and their advisors apparently thought it similarly symbolic that Andy Warhol had painted their portraits.

Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1979-1989

Mohammad RezÄ ShÄ h Pahlavi (ruled 1941-1979), deposed in the Iranian Revolution, 1979

Called hejâb (= hijab), this stamp depicts one sort of ideal Iranian woman in the eye(s) of the Islamic Republic.

Official American Actions vs. Muslim Iran

• coup d’état against Iranian PM Mosaddeq, 1953 • support of the Pahlavi monarchicalmdictatorship, 1953-1978 • support for Iranian royalists in 1978-9 • demonization of the Iranian nation, 1979• support for Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-8 • missile attack on an Iranian passenger jet,1989 • US sanctions against the Iranian people • confusion of IRI and Muslim Iranians • banning of Iranians from entering America in 2016 as part of a so-called Muslim ban • proposed registration of 900,000+ Iranians and Iranian-Americans in America in 2016 • support of Mojāhedin-e Khalq-e Iran

by American offcials • unilateral US abrogation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [= the Iran nuclear deal] • May 2019 U.S. military build-up in the Persian Gulf and U.S. threats against Iran

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US Senator Lindsey Graham: • “Everything I know about the Iranians I learned in the pool room...I ran the pool room when I was a kid and I met a lot of liars, and I know the Iranians are liars... The Iranians cheat and they lie.” (2015) • “They want a master religion for the world; the Nazis wanted a master race.” (2015) • “…everything that starts with ‘al’ in the Middle East is bad news.” (2015) •[On anticipated DNA test results:] “I’ll probably be Iranian, that’d be, like, terrible.” (2018) •

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Protests in Iran, late December 2017/early January 2018

Linguistic Map of Contemporary Iran

FÄ rsi Persian Azerbaijani Turkish Kurdish

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Iranian ethnicities and religions

EsfahÄ n Arabesque Medallion Carpet

Contemporary Persian Carpet Designs

Tekkeh Torkoman Gol Carpet

Paintings by Parviz KalÄ ntari (1931-2016)

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Tomb of Cyrus the Great (ruled 559-529 CBE) at Pasargad (near Persepolis)

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Cyrus (ruled 559-529 BCE) Cylinder

(1) “Marduk, king of the whole of heaven and earth,... (12) seeking for the upright king of his choice…took the hand of Cyrus, king of the city of Anshan, and called him by his name, proclaiming him aloud for the kingship over all of everything. (13) He made the land of Guti and all the Median troops prostrate themselves at his feet, while he shepherded in justice and righteousness the black-headed people (14) whom he had put under his care. Marduk, the great lord, who nurtures his people, saw with pleasure his fine deeds and true heart, (15) and ordered that he should go to Babylon. (18) All the people of…all Sumer and Akkad, nobles and governors, bowed down before him and kissed his feet, rejoicing over his kingship and their faces shone. (19) The lord through whose help all were rescued from death and who saved them all from distress and hardship, they blessed him sweetly and praised his name. (20) I am Cyrus, king of the universe, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world. (22) When I went as harbinger of peace into Babylon, (23) I founded my sovereign residence within the palace amid celebration and rejoicing. Marduk, the great lord, bestowed on me as my destiny the great magnanimity of one who loves Babylon, and I every day sought him out in awe. (24) My vast troops were marching peaceably in Babylon, and the whole of Sumer and Akkad had nothing to fear. (25) I sought the safety of the city of Babylon and all its sanctuaries. As for the population of Babylon…, who as if without divine intention had endured a yoke not decreed for them, (26) I soothed their weariness; I freed them from their bonds. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced at my good deeds, (27) and he pronounced a sweet blessing over me, Cyrus, the king who fears him, (28) that we might live happily in his presence, in well-being.

At his exalted command, all kings who sit on thrones, (29) from every quarter (30) brought their weighty tribute into Shuanna, and kissed my feet. From Shuanna I sent back to their places, (31) as far as the border of the land of Guti–the sanctuaries across the river Tigris– whose shrines had earlier become dilapidated, (32) the gods who lived therein, and made permanent sanctuaries for them. I collected together all of their people and returned them to their settlements, (33) and the gods of the land of Sumer and Akkad which Nabonidus… had brought into Shuanna, at the command of Marduk, the great lord, (34) I returned them unharmed to their cells, in the sanctuaries that make them happy. May all the gods that I returned to their sanctuaries, (35) every day before Bel and Nabu, ask for a long life for me, and mention my good deeds, and say to Marduk, my lord, this: “Cyrus, the king who fears you, and Cambyses his son, (36) may they be the provisioners of our shrines until distant days, and the population of Babylon call blessings on my kingship. I have enabled all the lands to live in peace.” (44) May Marduk, the great lord, present to me as a gift a long life and the fullness of age, (45) a secure throne and an enduring reign.”

Excerpted from Irving Finkel’s translation www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/c/cyrus_cylinder_-_translation.aspx

Seal of Achaemenid Emperor Darius the Great

Persepolis Entryway and Apadana Platform Persepolis, 518 BCE–

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• Educated Iranians also see their country as home to scores of historical monuments and ruins from the 34 Achaemenid empire (559-330 BCE), e.g., Persepolis (underscored) to the Safavid monarchy (1501-1722).

Iran’s Rulers and Invasions from 559 BCE to 2018 CE © 2018 Michael Craig Hillmann

Achaemenids, 559-330 BCE Conquest by Alexander, 330 BCE Seleucids, 312-191 BCE Arsacids (of Parthia), 247 BCE–224 CE Sāsānids, 224-651 CE Arab Muslim Conquest, 630s Umayyid Caliphs, 661-750 ‘Abbāsid Caliphs, 750-1258 Tāherids (820-891) and Saffārids (861-1003) Sāmānids, 819-999 Ghaznavids, 997-1040 Saljuqs, 1035-1153 Kharazmshāhs, 1077-1131 Mongol conquest, 1220-1258

Il-Khānids, 1256–1335+ Timurids, 1370-1500 Safavids, 1501-1722 Afghāns, early 18th century Afshārids, 1736-1747 Zands, 1757-1779 Qājārs, 1795-1921/6 British and Russians, late 19th c. – early 20th centuries Pahlavis, 1921/6-1979 Americans, 1941Islamic Republic, 1979-2018

Michael Craig Hillmann, 012018 mchillmann@aol.com www.Academia.edu/MichaelHillmann www.Issuu.com/MichaelHillmann

Sasanid Emperor ShÄ pur I with captive Roman Emperor Valerian 270 CE at Naqsh-e Rostam

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The Sāsānid ruins at Ctesiphon: A commemorative Iranian postage stamp

• The Sāsānid Empire (224-651 CE) came to an end at the hands of invading Muslim Arabs in the 630s and 640s, which resulted in the Islamifcation of the Iranian region and a dualistic Iranian culture that pays at least lip service to both pre-Islamic Iranian lore and to an Arabized medieval Islamic Iranian culture.

from “Ode to Ctesiphon by Khåqåni (………..)

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Take care, o heedful heart, to take lessons from what you see: see the palace of Ctesiphon as a mirror of admonition 2 Once along the Tigris, stop at Ctesiphon, and let a second Tigris flow from your eyes onto Ctesiphon's soil.

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Once the palace chain at Ctesiphon broke, the Tigris went awry and twisted like a chain.

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O Khāqāni, beg counsel from this palace (gate)

so that henceforth the Khāqān will beg at yours.

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If today a dervish seeks provisions from the Sultan,

tomorrow the Sultan will seek provisions at his door.

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If Meccan provisions serve every city along the way/

If gifts from every town offer provisions for Mecca take provisions from Ctesiphon, a travel gift for Sharv ān/Sherv ān.

‫عببر ككنك‬ ‫ككیكناز دید ه ع‬ ‫ت ب‬ ‫ل عبر ت‬ ‫هان اى د ع‬ ‫هان‬ [ ebrát].‫ایوان مدائنرا آیین ه عبرت دان‬ ‫ككبدجل ه منزل‬ ‫ككك ر ه ز ل‬ ‫ی‬ ‫ككهكك مدائنككنك‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ككر خاك مدائن‬ ‫م دجل ه ب‬ ‫وز دید ه دو ت‬ ‫ران‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ككگكسس‬ ‫ككلكككسل ه ایوان ب‬ ‫ككات س‬ ‫مدائنرا‬ ‫ككلكككسل ه‬ ‫ككدككك دجل ه چون س‬ ‫ككلكككسل ه ش‬ ‫در س‬ ‫ككدككك ككیپ چان‬ ‫ش‬ ‫ى ازیندر گ ه دریوز ه عبرت‬ ‫خاقان‬ ‫ككنك‬ ‫ككنككد‬ ‫ككس دریوز ه ك‬ ‫ككات از در ككتوكك ز آن پ‬ ‫خاقان‬ ‫ككلكككطان رندى‬ ‫ككركك از س‬ ‫امروز گ‬ ‫ككوكش ه‬ ‫طلبد ت‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ككرككدا ز در رندىككتوككش ه طل‬ ‫ف‬ ‫ككلكككطان‬ ‫س‬ ‫ت‬ ‫ك ه ككتوككش ه اس‬ ‫ككركك زاد ه ر ه م ك‬ ‫گ‬ ‫شكككرككى‬ ‫ككهكك هر ككه‬ ‫ب‬ , ‫ككر ككتحككف ه ز ككىپ‬ ‫ككتوكك زاد مدائن ب‬ ‫ككركككوان‬ ‫ش‬

Tomb of Ferdowsi (940-1020) Tus (near Mashhad)

Tomb of ‘Omar Khayyām (1048-1131) Nishāpur

Drink wine–the universe means your demise, intends the death of your pure life and mine.

Let's sit in the grass and drink bright wine, for here will blooms bloom from your dust and mine.

There was a drop of water, it merged with the sea.

There was a speck of dirt, it merged with the earth.

Your coming into the world is what?

A fly appearing and disappearing.

Rumi Museum, Shrine, and Mausoleum in Konya, Turkey

• Jalāloddin Rumi (1207-1273) was born in Vakhsh (in today’s Tajikistan) and apparently spent his childhood in Balkh (in today’s Afghanistan) and Samarqand (in today’s Uzbekistan). He and his family then traveled across today’s Iran and settled in Konya (in today’s Turkey), where he married at seventeen, raised a family, completed academic religious studies and guided study and practice of Sufism there and in Damascus, and succeeded his father as the leader of a Hanifite Sunni community with Sufistic leanings. Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran, and Turkey claim Rumi as a national poet. His Mevlevi Sufi order remains centered in Konya, where he died and is buried.

For years my heart sought Jamshid's cup from me, from a stranger it sought what it itself had.

A jewel beyond the shell of being and space it sought from lost ones on the road to the sea.

I took my problem to the Magian elder last night because he solved enigmas with visionary grace.

I saw him vibrant, smiling, a cup of wine in hand; and in that mirror he was viewing myriads of things.

I said: "When did the Sage give the world-seeing cup to you?"

He said: "On the day he made the azure dome."

He said: "That friend [Hallāj] for whom the gallows head rose, his crime was that he revealed secrets.

If the Holy Spirit's grace once again gives aid, others will perform miracles that Christ used to perform."

"Chain-like tresses of idols/beloveds are for what?"

I asked.

Hāfez, he said, was complaining because of a frenzied heart.

Tomb of Hāfez, Shirāz, 1935

Esfahān’s Royal Square, early 17th century

Shaykh Lotfollāh Mosque

Sh āh Mosque

Āli Q āpu Pavilion

• From the outside, Iranian mosque shapes, colors, and designs bring the sky down to earth and promise a safe haven from the harsh outside world within their courtyards and precincts. Their designs seem to be images of the gardens of heaven and infnite, indefnable divinity.

Ottoman Empire

Safavid Empire 1501-1722

Mughal Empire

Shahyād [Commemoration of Shåh] Tower, Tehrān, 1972-1979 Āzādi [Freedom] Tower, 1979-2018

Mt. Dam훮vand, north of Tehr훮n Mil훮d Tower, Tehr훮n

An Iranian postage stamp image of Friday community prayer at Tehr ān University

• K17:78–“Recite your prayers at sunset, at nightfall, and at dawn…” Wherever they are, Muslims face the Kaaba in Mecca when they prayer, that prayer direction called qibla in Arabic.

Younger Iranian Professionals Socializing in Mashhad, 2015

• What American narrative of Iran takes into account such a typical social scene?

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