Kalash language. Kalash - ancient Russians? (Photo and video)
Kalash! This is the people in Pakistan. And not just the people, but the descendants of the ancient Russians!
Relatively recently, ancient settlements of immigrants from Russian lands in the mountains of Pakistan were discovered to the world. We have long known that Muslims live in these southern regions. But what about among them, or rather autonomously, next to them lives a people who, even before the birth of Christ, supposedly came from the Tver lands of our homeland? It looks like they are our descendants.
So. I'm talking about this amazing people - Kalash. There are only about 6 thousand of them.
Scientists, faced with the mysteries of history, nevertheless begin to come to the conclusion that it was from Rus' that the people who built the Indian and Sumerian temples, the pyramids of Egypt came. Rather so. From the Russian lands came those who brought knowledge and experience of how to do it and why. And there is countless evidence for this. Let me remind you of the articles - Who invented the horoscope, etc.
And so new riddle. How, tell me, how did these beautiful people with beautiful Russian faces get on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan? 
It would be nice if only the resemblance is external. After all, Kalash are white-faced, gray-eyed, blue-eyed, unlike Pakistanis and Afghans.
They have preserved all the heritage of their ancestors - traditions, way of life, culture, practically intact. Moreover, this was traditional for the ancient lands of our northern ones - Tver and Vologda. But they do not speak the Dar languages, which are inherent in the area of today's residence. And they say ... Or rather so. Almost half of the words of their language are the old dialect of the Vologda region.
The basic vocabulary of Sanskrit is very well preserved in the Kalash language. It's just fantastic, because Russian and Sanskrit are very close languages.
Another very interesting touch. Kalash are eaten only at the table, sitting on chairs - excesses that have never been inherent in local residents and appeared in Afghanistan and Pakistan only with the arrival of the British in the 18th-19th centuries, but never took root. And Kalash have used tables and chairs for centuries!
It is assumed that they came to these lands since the time of the prophet Zarashustra, i.e. 3500 years ago. The facts show that the prophet Zarashustra, who created the oldest religious teaching on earth, came from the Cimmerian (Cimry, ancient city Rus') of the family and the ups and downs of his biography are most directly related to the prehistory of Russia.
The English doctor George Scott Robertson, who visited the Kalash in 1889 and lived there for about a year, left materials about the life of the Kalash and their religion. According to his observations, it can be reasonably argued that their religion is reminiscent of the transformed Zoroastrianism and the cults of the ancient Aryans.
This people is also interesting in that it reveres the “Russian Cross” as a talisman, which from ancient times adorned houses, embroidered clothes and other household items of the ancient northern Slavs.
Kalash live next to Muslims. But, Kalash women do not wear a veil. They put on the face the image of the "Russian cross" in the form of a tattoo. 
Beginning in the 18th century, Muslims persecuted and exterminated Kalash who professed paganism, taking away their fertile lands and driving them into the mountainous areas of the Pamirs. Despite this, the Kalash managed to maintain their identity. They live in communities, closed. They are engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture. 
It was very difficult for the Kalash to survive during the genocide. And even now it is not easier. To survive they have to assimilate with the local Muslim population.
The head of the Kalash family is a man, which is very similar to the Russian housing construction. It is he who makes the most important decisions and always sits at the head of the table. There is no discrimination against women. She is the man's assistant. The only thing is that before giving birth, a woman moves to another community house - a tower, where she should give birth. Type of the current maternity hospital. Where this tradition of Kalash came from and they themselves do not remember.
Interestingly, Kalash people make moonshine, a strong drink even by Russian standards. And what would you think? From apricots! That's right. There is no stool there to drive a stool.
By the way. The Kalash have a very developed art of wood carving. 
A special perception of the purity of nature and its conservation - distinguishing feature this amazing people. In general, cleanliness is sacred for them, like the ancient Russians, who observed the cult of cleanliness. And for the desecration of land and water could receive a very cruel punishment. The biggest sin of our ancestors was to throw away the garbage. People who polluted the land or water were despised and could even be executed. And what are we doing now? How the Earth must love us in order to endure such mockery ... Or rather, it can’t stand it anymore.
Apparently you still need to read the book of the researcher Gennady Klimov "The Birth of Rus'", in which he tries to understand the tricky questions of history "Who and where did he go?". And as I understand it, it proves that the migration of peoples did not go from south to north, as venerable historians convinced us, but vice versa from north to south.
Here he, for example, describes that in the Tver region there are many remains of "vars" - ring-shaped structures of the type
The Kalash are a small Dardic people inhabiting two valleys of the right tributaries of the Chitral (Kunar) River in the mountains of the southern Hindu Kush in the Chitral district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (Pakistan). Native language- Kalasha - refers to the Dardic group of Indo-Iranian languages. The uniqueness of the people, surrounded on all sides by Islamized neighbors, lies in the fact that a significant part of it still professes paganism, which has developed on the basis of the Indo-Iranian religion and substratum beliefs.
If the Kalash were a large people with a separate territory and statehood, then their existence would hardly surprise anyone, but today no more than 6 thousand people have survived - they are the smallest and most mysterious ethnic group in the Asian region.
Kalash (self-name: kasivo; the name "Kalash" comes from the name of the area) is a people in Pakistan living in the highlands of the Hindu Kush (Nuristan or Kafirstan). The number is about 6 thousand people. They were almost completely exterminated as a result of the Muslim genocide by the beginning of the 20th century, as they profess paganism. They lead a secluded life. They speak the Kalash language of the Dardic group of Indo-European languages (however, about half of the words of their language have no analogues in other Dardic languages, as well as in the languages of neighboring peoples). It is widely believed in Pakistan that the Kalash are descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great (in connection with which the government of Macedonia built a center of culture in this area, see, for example, “Macedonia ќe gradi kulturen tsentar kaјnzi to Pakistan”). The appearance of some Kalash is characteristic of the northern European peoples, among them blue-eyedness and blondism are often found. At the same time, some of the Kalash also have an Asian appearance that is quite characteristic of the region.
The religion of most Kalash is paganism; their pantheon has many common features with the reconstructed ancient Aryan pantheon. The claims of some journalists that the Kalash worship "ancient Greek gods" are unfounded. At the same time, about 3 thousand Kalash are Muslims. The conversion to Islam is not welcomed by the Kalash, who are trying to preserve their tribal identity. Kalash are not descendants of the warriors of Alexander the Great, and the northern European appearance of some of them is explained by the preservation of the original Indo-European gene pool as a result of refusing to mix with the alien non-Aryan population. Along with the Kalash, representatives of the Hunza people and some ethnic groups of the Pamirs, Persians, and others also have similar anthropological characteristics.
Scientists attribute Kalash to the white race - this is a fact. The faces of many Kalash are purely European. The skin is white, unlike Pakistanis and Afghans. And bright and often blue eyes are like the passport of an unfaithful kafir. Kalash eyes are blue, gray, green and very rarely brown. There is one more touch that does not fit into the culture and way of life common to the Muslims of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Kalash always made for themselves and used furniture. They eat at the table, sitting on chairs - excesses that were never inherent in the local "natives" and appeared in Afghanistan and Pakistan only with the arrival of the British in the 18th-19th centuries, but never took root. And Kalash from time immemorial used tables and chairs ...
At the end of the first millennium, Islam came to Asia, and with it the troubles of the Indo-Europeans, and in particular the Kalash people, who did not want to change the faith of their ancestors to the Abrahamic "teaching of the book." Surviving in Pakistan as a pagan is almost hopeless. Local Muslim communities persistently tried to force the Kalash to convert to Islam. And many Kalash were forced to submit: either to live by accepting new religion or die. In the 18th-19th centuries, Muslims slaughtered thousands of Kalash. Those who did not obey and at least secretly performed pagan cults, the authorities, at best, were driven from fertile lands, driven into the mountains, and more often they were destroyed.
The brutal genocide of the Kalash people continued until the middle of the 19th century, until the tiny territory that the Muslims called Kafirstan (the land of the infidels), where the Kalash lived, fell under the jurisdiction of the British Empire. This saved them from complete extermination. But even now, Kalash are on the verge of extinction. Many are forced to assimilate (through marriage) with Pakistanis and Afghans, converting to Islam - it's easier to survive and get a job, education, position.
Kalash village
The life of modern Kalash can be called Spartan. Kalash live in communities - it's easier to survive. They live in houses built of stone, wood and clay. The roof of the lower house (floor) is also the floor or veranda of another family's house. Of all the amenities in the hut: table, chairs, benches and pottery. The Kalash know about electricity and television only by hearsay. A shovel, a hoe and a pick - they understand and are more familiar. They draw their livelihood from agriculture. Kalash manage to grow wheat and other crops on lands cleared of stone. But the main role in their livelihood is played by livestock, mainly goats, which give the descendants of the ancient Aryans milk and dairy products, wool and meat.
In everyday life, a clear and unshakable division of duties is striking: men are the first in labor and hunting, women only help them in the least labor-intensive operations (weeding, milking, household chores). In the house, men sit at the head of the table and make all significant decisions in the family (in the community). Towers are built for women in each settlement - a separate house where the women of the community give birth to children and spend time on "critical days". A Kalash woman is obliged to give birth to a child only in the tower, and therefore pregnant ladies settle in the "maternity hospital" ahead of time. No one knows where this tradition came from, but there are no other segregation and discriminatory tendencies against women among the Kalash, which infuriates and makes Muslims laugh, who, because of this, treat Kalash as people not of this world ...
Some of the Kalash also have an Asian appearance quite characteristic of the region, but at the same time they often have blue or green eyes.
Marriage. This sensitive issue is decided exclusively by the parents of the young. They can also consult with the young, they can talk with the parents of the bride (groom), or they can solve the problem without asking the opinion of their child.
Kalash do not know days off, but they cheerfully and hospitably celebrate 3 holidays: Yoshi - the sowing festival, Uchao - the harvest festival, and Choimus - the winter holiday of the gods of nature, when the Kalash ask the gods to send them a mild winter and good spring and summer.
During Choimus, each family slaughters a goat as a sacrifice, the meat of which is treated to everyone who comes to visit or meet on the street.
Kalash language, or Kalasha - the language of the Dardic group of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Distributed among the Kalash in several valleys of the Hindu Kush, southwest of the city of Chitral in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Belonging to the Dardic subgroup is questionable, since slightly more than half of the words are similar in meaning to words in the Khovar language, which is also included in this subgroup. Phonologically, the language is atypical (Heegård & Mørch 2004).
The basic vocabulary of Sanskrit is very well preserved in the Kalash language, for example:
In the 1980s, the development of writing for the Kalash language began in two versions - based on Latin and Persian scripts. The Persian version turned out to be preferable, and in 1994 an illustrated alphabet and a book for reading in Kalash based on Persian graphics were first published. In the 2000s, an active transition to the Latin script began. In 2003, the Kal'as'a Alibe alphabet was published. (English)
Religion and culture of the Kalash
The first explorers and missionaries began to penetrate into Kafiristan after the colonization of India, but the English doctor George Scott Robertson, who visited Kafiristan in 1889 and lived there for a year, provided really voluminous information about its inhabitants. The uniqueness of Robertson's expedition is that he collected material on the rites and traditions of the infidels before the Islamic invasion. Unfortunately, a number materials collected was lost while crossing the Indus during his return to India. However, the surviving materials and personal memories allowed him to publish in 1896 the book "Kafirs of the Hindu Kush" ("The Kafirs of Hindu-Kush").
The pagan temple of the Kalash. in the center of the ancestral pillar.
On the basis of Robertson's observations of the religious and ceremonial side of the life of the infidels, it can be reasonably asserted that their religion is reminiscent of transformed Zoroastrianism and the cults of the ancient Aryans. The main arguments in favor of this statement are the attitude towards fire and the funeral rite. Below we will describe some of the traditions, religious foundations, religious buildings and rites of the infidels.
The main, "metropolitan" of the infidels was a village called "Kamdesh". The houses of Kamdesh were arranged in steps along the slopes of the mountains, so the roof of one house was a courtyard for another. The houses were richly decorated with intricate wood carvings. The field work was done not by men, but by women, although the men had previously cleared the field of stones and fallen logs. Men at that time were engaged in sewing clothes, ritual dances in the countryside and solving public affairs.
The main object of worship was fire. In addition to fire, the infidels worshiped wooden idols, which were carved by skilled craftsmen and exhibited in sanctuaries. The pantheon consisted of many Gods and Goddesses. The god Imra was considered the main one. Also highly revered was the God of War Gisha. Each village had its own petty patron deity. The world, according to beliefs, was inhabited by many good and evil spirits fighting each other.
Ancestral pillar with a swastika rosette.
V. Sarianidi, relying on the testimony of Robertson, describes the religious buildings as follows:
“... the main temple of Imra was located in one of the villages and was a large building with a square portico, the roof of which was supported by carved wooden columns. Some of the columns were entirely decorated with sculptured heads of rams, others had only one animal head carved in a round relief at the base, the horns of which, wrapping around the column trunk and crossing, rose up, forming a kind of openwork net. In its empty cells there were sculptural figures of amusing little men.
It was here, under the portico, on a special stone, blackened from gore, that numerous animal sacrifices were made. The front facade of the temple had seven doors, famous for the fact that each of them had another small door. The large doors were tightly closed, only two side doors were opened, and even then on especially solemn occasions. But the main interest was in the doors, decorated with fine carvings and huge relief figures depicting the seated God Imra. Particularly striking is the face of God with a huge square chin, reaching almost to the knees! In addition to the figures of the god Imra, the facade of the temple was decorated with images huge heads cows and rams. On the opposite side of the temple, five colossal figures were installed supporting its roof.
Having walked around the temple and admiring its carved “shirt”, we will look inside through a small hole, which, however, must be done furtively so as not to offend the religious feelings of the infidels. In the middle of the room, in the cool twilight, you can see a square hearth right on the floor, at the corners of which there are pillars, also covered with amazingly fine carvings, which represent the image of human faces. On the opposite wall from the entrance there is an altar framed with images of animals; in the corner, under a special canopy, there is a wooden statue of God Imra himself. The remaining walls of the temple are decorated with carved hats of irregular hemispherical shape, planted on the ends of poles. ... Separate temples were built only for the main Gods, and for minor ones they built one sanctuary for several gods. So, there were small temples with carved windows, from which the faces of various wooden idols looked out.
Among the most important rituals were the selection of elders, the preparation of wine, sacrifices to the Gods and burial. Like most rituals, the choice of elders was accompanied by massive goat sacrifices and plentiful treats. Elections of the chief elder (jasta) were made by elders from among the elders. These elections were also accompanied by the reading of sacred hymns dedicated to the Gods, sacrifices and refreshments to the assembled elders in the candidate's house:
“... the priest present at the feast is seated in the center of the room, a magnificent turban is wrapped around his head, richly decorated with shells, red glass beads, and in front with juniper twigs. His ears are studded with earrings, a massive necklace is put on his neck, and bracelets are on his hands. A long shirt, reaching to the knees, freely descends on embroidered trousers tucked into boots with long tops. A bright silk Badakhshan robe is thrown over this garment, a ritual dance ax is clutched in his hand.
Here one of the seated elders slowly gets up and, having tied a white cloth around his head, steps forward. He takes off his boots, washes his hands thoroughly, and proceeds to sacrifice. Having stabbed two huge mountain goats with his own hand, he deftly places a vessel under the stream of blood, and then, going up to the initiate, draws some signs on his forehead with blood. The door to the room opens, and servants bring in huge loaves of bread with sprigs of burning juniper stuck in them. These loaves are solemnly carried around the initiate three times. Then, after another plentiful treat, the hour of ritual dances begins. Several guests are given dancing boots and special scarves with which they tighten their lower backs. Pine torches are lit, and ritual dances and chants begin in honor of the numerous Gods.
Another important rite of the Kafirs was the rite of making grape wine. A man was chosen to make wine, who, having thoroughly washed his feet, began to crush the grapes brought by women. Grapes were served in wicker baskets. After a thorough crush, the grape juice was poured into huge jugs and left to ferment.
The festive ritual in honor of God Gish proceeded as follows:
“... early in the morning the inhabitants of the village are awakened by the thunder of many drums, and soon a priest appears in the narrow crooked streets with frantically ringing metal bells. The priest is followed by a crowd of boys, to whom from time to time he throws handfuls of nuts, and then, with mock ferocity, rushes to drive them away. Accompanying him, the children imitate the bleating of goats. The priest's face is whitened with flour and smeared with oil on top, he holds bells in one hand, and an ax in the other. Wriggling and writhing, he shakes bells and axes, doing almost acrobatic tricks and accompanying them with terrible screams. Finally, the procession approaches the sanctuary of God Guiche, and the adult participants solemnly arrange themselves in a semicircle near the priest and those accompanying him. Dust swirled to the side, and a herd of fifteen bleating goats appeared, driven by the boys. Having done their job, they immediately run away from adults to engage in children's pranks and games ...
The priest approaches a burning bonfire of cedar branches, giving off thick white smoke. Nearby are four pre-prepared wooden vessels containing flour, melted butter, wine and water. The priest carefully washes his hands, takes off his shoes, pours a few drops of oil into the fire, then sprinkles the sacrificial goats with water three times, saying: "Be clean." Approaching the closed door of the sanctuary, he pours out and pours out the contents of wooden vessels, uttering ritual incantations. The young guys serving the priest quickly slit the goat's throat, collect the splashed blood in vessels, and the priest then splashes it into a burning fire. Throughout this procedure, a special person, illuminated by the reflections of fire, sings sacred songs all the time, which gives this scene a touch of special solemnity.
Suddenly, another priest rips off his hat and, rushing forward, begins to twitch, shouting loudly and waving his arms wildly. The head priest tries to appease the dispersed "colleague", finally he calms down and, waving his arms a few more times, puts on his hat and sits down in his place. The ceremony ends with the recitation of verses, after which the priests and all those present touch their foreheads with the ends of their fingers and make a kiss sign with their lips, meaning a religious greeting to the sanctuary.
By evening, in complete exhaustion, the priest enters the first house he comes across and gives his bells to the owner for safekeeping, which is great honor for the latter, and he immediately orders the slaughter of several goats and a feast in honor of the priest and his entourage. Thus, for two weeks, with slight variations, the celebrations in honor of God Guiche continue.
Kalash cemetery. The graves are strongly reminiscent of northern Russian tombstones - dominas.
Finally, one of the most important was the burial rite. The funeral procession at the beginning was accompanied by loud female weeping and lamentations, and then ritual dances to the beat of drums and the accompaniment of reed pipes. Men, as a sign of mourning, wore goat skins over their clothes. The procession ended at the cemetery, where only women and slaves were allowed to enter. The deceased infidels, as it should be according to the canons of Zoroastrianism, were not buried in the ground, but left in wooden coffins in the open air.
As such, according to colorful descriptions Robertson, were the rituals of one of the lost branches of an ancient powerful and influential religion. Unfortunately, now it is already difficult to check where is a scrupulous statement of reality, and where is fiction. In any case, today we have no reason to question Robertson's story.
The article uses materials from Wikipedia, Igor Naumov, V. Sarianidi.
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Everything in the life of the Kalash living in northern Pakistan in the Hindu Kush mountains is different from that of their neighbors: both faith, and way of life, and even the color of their eyes and hair. This people is a mystery. They themselves consider themselves descendants of Alexander the Great.
Who are your ancestors?
The ancestors of the Kalash are argued over and over again. There is an opinion that the Kalash are local aborigines who once inhabited the vast territories of the southern valley of the Chitral River. And today numerous Kalash toponyms have been preserved there. Over time, the Kalash were forced out (or assimilated?) From their original territories.
There is another point of view: the Kalash are not local natives, but came to the north of Pakistan many centuries ago. These could be, for example, the tribes of northern Indians living around the 13th century BC. in the south of the Urals and in the north of the Kazakh steppes. Their appearance resembled the appearance of modern Kalash - blue or green eyes and fair skin.
It should be noted that external features are not characteristic of all, but only of part of the representatives. mysterious people, however, this often does not prevent mentioning their proximity to Europeans and calling the Kalash the heirs of the "Nordic Aryans". However, scientists believe that if you look at other peoples who have been living in isolated conditions for thousands of years and are not too willing to record strangers as relatives, then Nuristani, Darts or Badakhshans can also find "homozygous inbreeding (related) depigmentation." They also tried to prove that the Kalash belonged to European peoples at the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, as well as at Southern California and Stanford Universities. The verdict - the genes of the Kalash are really unique, but the question of the ancestors was still open.
beautiful legend
The Kalash themselves willingly adhere to a more romantic version of their origin, calling themselves the descendants of the warriors who came to the mountains of Pakistan after Alexander the Great. As befits the legend, it has several variations. According to one, Macedonian ordered the Kalash to remain until their return, but for some reason he did not return for them. Faithful soldiers had no choice but to develop new lands.
According to another, several soldiers, due to injuries unable to continue moving along with Alexander's army, were forced to remain in the mountains. Faithful women, of course, did not leave their husbands. The legend is very popular with travelers-researchers who visit the Kalash and numerous tourists.
pagans
Everyone who comes to this amazing land must first sign papers prohibiting any attempts to influence the identity of a unique people. First of all, we are talking about religion. There are many among the Kalash who continue to adhere to the old pagan faith, despite numerous attempts to convert them to Islam. Numerous posts on this topic can be found on the net, although the Kalash themselves evade questions and say that they "do not recall any tough measures."
Sometimes, the elders assure, a change of faith occurs when a local girl decides to marry a Muslim, but this happens, according to them, infrequently. However, researchers are confident that to avoid the fate of Nuristani neighbors who were forcibly converted to late XIX centuries into Islam, the Kalash succeeded only because they inhabited the territory that fell under the jurisdiction of the British.
The origin of the polytheism of the Kalash causes no less controversy. Attempts to draw analogies with the Greek pantheon of gods are considered by most scientists to be unfounded: it is unlikely that the Kalash supreme god Dezau is Zeus, and the patroness of women Dezalik is Aphrodite. The Kalash have no clergy, and everyone prays on their own. True, it is not recommended to address the gods directly, for this there is a dehar - a special person who, in front of a juniper or oak altar, decorated with two pairs of horse skulls, makes a sacrifice (usually a goat). It is rather difficult to list all the Kalash gods: each village has its own, and besides this, there are many demon spirits, mostly female.
About shamans, meetings and seeing off
Kalash shamans can predict the future and punish sins. The most famous of them is Nanga dhar - legends were made about his abilities, telling how in one second he disappeared from one place, passing through the rocks, and appeared with a friend. Shamans are trusted to administer justice: their prayer is supposedly capable of punishing the offender. On the humerus of a sacrificial goat, a shaman-ashzhiau (“looking at a bone”) specializing in predictions can see the fate of not only an individual, but also entire states.
The life of the Kalash is unthinkable without numerous feasts. Visiting tourists are unlikely to immediately be able to understand what event they are attending: a birth or a funeral. Kalash are sure that these moments are equally significant, and therefore it is necessary in any case to arrange a grandiose holiday - not so much for themselves, but for the gods. Should be happy when new person comes to this world so that his life is happy, and to have fun at the funeral - let the afterlife be serene. Ritual dances in a sacred place - Dzheshtak, chants, bright clothes and tables bursting with refreshments - all these are the invariable attributes of the two main events in the life of an amazing people.
This is the table - they eat at it
A feature of the Kalash is that, unlike their neighbors, they always used tables and chairs for meals. They build houses according to the Macedonian custom - from stones and logs. Do not forget about the balcony, while the roof of one house is the floor for another - you get a kind of "Kalash skyscrapers". On the facade there is stucco molding with Greek motifs: rosettes, radial stars, intricate meanders.
Most Kalash are engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding. There are few examples when one of them managed to change their usual way of life. The legendary Lakshan Bibi, who became an air pilot and created a fund to support the Kalash, is widely known. The unique people are of genuine interest: the Greek authorities are building schools and hospitals for them, and the Japanese are developing projects for additional energy sources. By the way, the Kalash learned about electricity relatively recently.
In vino veritas
The production and consumption of wine is another distinguishing feature Kalash. Prohibition throughout Pakistan is no reason to abandon traditions. And after making wine, you can also play your favorite gal - a cross between bast shoes, golf and baseball. The ball is hit with a club, and then they are looking for it together. Whoever found it twelve times and returned first "to the base" won. Often, residents of one village come to visit their neighbors to fight in a gala, and then have fun celebrating - and it doesn’t matter if it’s a victory or defeat.
Search a woman
Kalash women are on the sidelines, doing the most “ungrateful work”. But that's where the similarity with neighbors ends. They decide for themselves whom to marry, and if the marriage turns out to be unhappy, then divorce. True, the new chosen one must pay ex-husband"forfeit" - dowry in double size. Kalash girls can not only get an education, but also, for example, get a job as a guide. For a long time, the Kalash have also had original maternity homes - “bashals”, where “dirty” women spend several days before the onset of childbirth and about a week after.
Relatives and curious people are not only forbidden to visit expectant mothers, they are not even allowed to touch the walls of the tower.
And what kalashki are beautiful and elegant! The sleeves and hems of their black dresses, for which Muslims, by the way, call the Kalash "black infidels", are embroidered with multi-colored beads. On the head is the same bright headdress, reminiscent of the Baltic corolla, decorated with ribbons and intricate beadwork. On the neck - a lot of strings of beads, by which you can determine the age of a woman (if you can count, of course). The elders cryptically remark that the Kalash are only alive as long as their women wear their dresses. And finally, one more "rebus": why is the hairstyle of even the smallest girls - five braids that begin to weave from the forehead?
White people of Pakistan
The people who speak the Dardic language also live in Pakistan - in the highlands of the Hindu Kush, in three small isolated mountain valleys: Bumburet, Rumbur And Birir, in an area called Chitral (Chitral) on the border with Afghanistan. They are called Kalash – white tribe Pakistan. They really look very similar to the peoples of northern Europe. Among them, very often there are people with fair skin, hair and eyes, and often - blue-eyed blondes. With all this, there are also Kalash with an Asian appearance characteristic of the region.
The number of Kalash today is no more than 6 thousand people. They live carefully preserving their culture and the faith of their ancestors. They managed to survive and maintain their religious and ethnic identity in the Islamic world, despite forced Islamization, which was started in 1320 when Shah Nadir Rice (Shah Nadir Rais) or Raees)), the ruler of Gilit, the most important city on the Great Silk Road, conquered the Kalash and began to forcibly convert them to Islam. By the way, the ancient rulers of this city and the territory of Gilit-Baltistan had the title Ra, then they began to be called HinduRas (Hindu Ras), which may indicate that they were Hindus, and in the 13th century they converted to Islam and changed the dynastic name Ra-Ras-Rais (Ra-Ras-Rais) on Trakhan (trakhan). The energetic Islamization of the Kalash lasted until the beginning of the 20th century and brought them to the brink of extermination. In the 18-19 centuries, Muslims deployed against the Kalash real genocide- slaughtered by the thousands. All who refused to convert to Islam or secretly continued to practice their religion, at best, were driven from the fertile lands to the mountains, but most often they were physically destroyed.
However, they managed to survive and preserve their culture. How? This question is answered by the Kalash leader Sayaullah Jan (Saifulla Jan): “If one of the Kalash converts to Islam, then he can no longer live among us. We sacredly guard our identity.” However, Islam is not going to give up on them. To date, three thousand Kalash are converted to Islam (shikhs ( sheikhs)) or their descendants, which is more than half of the population speaking the Kalash language. They live near Kalash villages and preserve their language and many traditions of their ancient culture.
What is this culture, which a handful of white people, driven to the high plateaus of the Hindu Kush, are trying so carefully and selflessly to save? First of all, this is the Kalash religion, which, along with the pantheon of gods, religious buildings and religious rites, is very reminiscent of, as it is now customary to say, pagan. One of the researchers who left evidence of the life of white tribes lost in the mountains of the Hindu Kush was an English doctor. George Scott Robertson (Sir George Scott Robertson (1852-1916)) who served in Afghanistan during the second Anglo-Afghan war of 1878-1880. In 1888 he was seconded to the Indian Foreign Office (the Indian Foreign Office) as a surgeon in Gilit in northern Pakistan. Then, having set off from Chitral, he undertook a journey, which lasted about a year, through Kafiristan - as the Muslims called Nuristan (now a province of Afghanistan) (from kafir - incorrect) - the territory where white people lived. He described his impressions in the book "The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush" (The Kafirs of Hindu-Kush) which was published in 1896.
Robertson was not the first researcher to take an interest in the pagans of Kafiristan. Before him, there was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary Bento de Goes, who traveled from Lahore to China, as well as the British traveler Colonel Alexander Gardner. All of them were still able to catch a unique ancient culture, located on the territory of 10-20 thousand square kilometers in the heart of Asia, surrounded on all sides and pressed by Muslim peoples and defending the right to exist for several hundred years.
From Robertson's observations of the religious and ritual life of the Nuristanis and Kalash, it was concluded that their religion is a modified Zoroastrianism and resembles the cults of the ancient Aryans of the times of the Rig Veda. The reason for this conclusion was their worship of fire and the funeral rite. They did not bury their dead in the ground, but left them in wooden coffins in the open air, because in Zoroastrianism a corpse is considered filthy. Death is the "work" of an evil spirit Ahriman(Angra-Mani), therefore, in a dead person there is a large concentration of evil forces. And, in order not to defile the elements that the Zoroasters revere - fire, earth and water, they leave their dead in open coffins until only white bones remain, which are then buried in the ground.
In addition to fire, kafirs worship wooden idols. Kalash have many gods and goddesses. The creator god is considered the main one, who has several names - Imra, Mara (death) and Dezau (Dezau (dezaw)). The god of war Gisha is also highly revered. In addition to them, there are other gods - the god of the middle earth - Munhem Malik, the god of the harvest Mandi, the goddess of the hearth Jestak, the goddess of childbirth Dezalik and others. In addition, each village had its own patron god. Kalash also revere various anthropomorphic spirits that live in the invisible Spirit World. For example, mountain spirits - peri and varoti (the first - female, the second - male), who live high in the mountains and descend to the mountain meadows in the spring. Kalash believe that they help in hunting and killing enemies.
The Kalash perform their rituals in specially built temples. Famous Soviet and Russian archaeologist, Doctor of Historical Sciences IN AND. Sarianidi(1929-2013) describes the Kalash temple as follows: “... the main temple of Imra was located in one of the villages and was a large building with a square portico, the roof of which was supported by carved wooden columns. Some of the columns were entirely decorated with sculptured heads of rams, others had only one animal head carved in a round relief at the base, the horns of which, wrapping around the column trunk and crossing, rose up, forming a kind of openwork net. In its empty cells there were sculptural figures of amusing little men.
It was here, under the portico, on a special stone, blackened from gore, that numerous animal sacrifices were made. The front facade of the temple had seven doors, famous for the fact that each of them had another small door. The large doors were tightly closed, only two side doors were opened, and even then on especially solemn occasions. But the main interest was in the doors, decorated with fine carvings and huge relief figures depicting the seated god Imru. Particularly striking is the face of God with a huge square chin, reaching almost to the knees! In addition to the figures of the god Imra, the facade of the temple was decorated with images of huge heads of cows and rams. On the opposite side of the temple, five colossal figures were installed supporting its roof.
Having walked around the temple and admiring its carved “shirt”, we will look inside through a small hole, which, however, must be done furtively so as not to offend the religious feelings of the infidels. In the middle of the room, in the cool twilight, you can see a square hearth right on the floor, at the corners of which there are pillars, also covered with amazingly fine carvings, which represent the image of human faces. On the opposite wall from the entrance there is an altar framed with images of animals; in the corner under a special canopy stands a wooden statue of the god Imra himself. The remaining walls of the temple are decorated with carved hats of irregular hemispherical shape, planted on the ends of poles ... Separate temples were built only for the main gods, and for minor ones they built one sanctuary for several gods. So, there were small temples with carved windows, from which the faces of various wooden idols looked out ... "
Kalash are excellent wood carvers. They always made all their furniture themselves - beds, chairs, tables, and decorated them with symbols that are so familiar to Russian people. They decorated them different kind including the swastika. Same vedic symbols used by Russian craftsmen for decoration, for example,. The researchers note that the chairs and tables were not used by the local Muslim natives. They appeared in Afghanistan and Pakistan only with the arrival of the British in the 18-19 centuries, but they never took root, and Kalash have used tables and chairs for centuries.
At present, Kalash, like Dards. live hard and poorly. They live in houses with several floors, which they themselves build from stone, wood and clay. The roof of the lower house is the floor or verandah of the other family's house. The whole furnishings of the house consists of a table, chairs, benches and pottery. The Kalash do not have electricity or television. They farm, growing wheat and other grains on rock-cleared land, but livestock, mostly goats, which provide them with milk and dairy products, wool and meat, play a major role in their livelihood. When distributing household chores, the Kalash have a clear division between male and female. Men are engaged in the main work and hunting, women only help them by doing less labor-intensive work (weeding, milking, housekeeping). A man is the head of the family and makes all significant decisions, both in the family and in the community. Kalash live in communities - it's easier to survive this way.
Kalash work all week, seven days a week, but regularly celebrate 3 main holidays: Yoshi (Joshi)- sowing festival at the end of May, Uchao (Uchau)- harvest festival in autumn, and Komus (caumus)- the winter holiday of the gods of nature, when the Kalash ask the gods to send them a mild winter and good spring and summer in the middle of winter. During Komus, each family slaughters a goat as a sacrifice, the meat of which is treated to everyone who comes to visit or meet on the street.
The question of the origin of the Kalash is still open. In Pakistan, it is believed that the Kalash are descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great, and in this regard, the government of Macedonia built a "house of culture" there. However, this is just beautiful legend which is not confirmed by genetic analysis. Another version says that the Kalash are the autochthonous population of Nuristan, in Afghanistan. Someone says that the Kalash migrated to Afghanistan from a distant place in South Asia called Tsiam (Tsiyam) about which is sung in folk songs Kalash.
However, it has been established that the Kalash migrated to Chitral from Afghanistan in the 2nd century BC. and by 10 AD the Kalash ruled most of today's Chitral. Yet their origin continues to be a mystery, as is the origin of the Nuristanis, the Hunza people, and certain ethnic groups of the Pamirs and Persians, who also have northern European appearance.
White people of Afghanistan
In June 1985, the American magazine National Geographic (National Geographic) published a photo of an Afghan girl on its cover, which surprised readers with a piercing look of eyes of amazing aquamarine color and Caucasoid features. In 1984, photographer Steve McCurry (Steve McCurry) collected materials about the Afghan-Soviet war and visited refugee camps on the Afghan-Pakistani border. At the Nasir Bagh camp (Nasir Bagh) he photographed several children in elementary school, including this girl.
Later, while developing the negatives, Steve saw how extraordinary the picture turned out. However, he did not ask either her name or the place where she used to live, only her approximate age was known - 12 years old. So the photo on the cover was called “Afghan girl”. Steve was looking for her and 17 years later, in 2002, he found her in a remote village in Afghanistan. She was already about 30 years old. Why "around"? She herself did not know the year of her birth. Her name was Sharbat Gula (Sharbat Gula). She was married and had three daughters. She came from the Pashtuns, who are considered the descendants of the ancient Cambodians from the royal tribe of the eastern Scythians- Saks, who invaded Bactria (the territory of modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan between the Hindu Kush mountain range in the south and the Ferghana Valley in the north), Sogdiana and northeastern India in the 2nd century BC, organized the Indo-Scythian state and ruled there for six centuries - until the 4th century. AD By the way, they got to, in fact, Cambodia- a country that earlier, in Soviet times, was known to us as Kampuchea. This is how white-skinned, light-eyed "Caucasians" found themselves among the modern Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the heart of the Islamic world.
There are no female images, as all adult women wear a veil. And Gula, whom Steve photographed after he tracked her down, asked permission from her husband to reveal her face. In the video Pashtun Beauty you can see a few more images of Pashtuns.
Descendants of the ancient Cambodians, that is Scythians(Saks) are also considered to be some tribes in the Afghan province of Nuristan. And indeed, there, in the north-east of Afghanistan, live whites light-eyed people - Nuristani, whose fate is closely connected with the Kalash.
Nuristan translates as Land of Light, and earlier the place where these people lived was called Kafiristan (from kafir - incorrect). Both names, apparently, were given by Muslims, but it is not known what the inhabitants themselves called it. The Nuristanis, who now number 120-140 thousand people, are settled in the hard-to-reach valleys of the southern slope of the Hindu Kush. The Nuristanis resisted Islamization ever since the ruler of Ghazni (Ghazni - a city in Afghanistan) Mahmud of Ghazni began to make conquests under the flag of jihad, including 17 campaigns in North India from 1001 to 1026, until the end of the 19th century. Muslims gradually squeezed them into the mountains, some of them went to Chitral in the 15th century and formed the Kalash people, mixing with the Dards. The remaining infidels not only climbed the mountains, retreating, but also raided the underlying Muslim lands and plundered them, thus responding to violent attempts at Islamization.
The Nuristanis were finally conquered in 1896. The Afghan emir Abdur-Rahman undertook a winter campaign against Kafristan, which had previously been considered inaccessible in winter. The campaign turned out to be successful for the Muslims, the highlanders lost both the political independence that they had enjoyed until that time, and the religious one - they were converted to Islam, and their land from Kafiristan - the country of the infidels, has since become Nuristan- the country of the world, meaning the true Muslim faith. It is not difficult to imagine by what bloody methods this transformation was carried out. At first, in Nuristan, the faith of the ancestors was secretly preserved in the hope that the old life would return, but the generations that grew up in paganism left, and the number of people who converted to Islam became more and more, and the original religion of the infidels went into oblivion. At the end of the 20th century, the Nuristanis were subjected to genocide once again - now from the side Taliban who took over Afghanistan.
However, ethnographers still managed to write down some myths, describe and even sketch some rituals and religious buildings with solar signs, the same as those Kalash. The drawings show the entrance to the Bashgul valley, the grave of the Kafiristan leader of the tribe in the Vaigul valley, the shutters of the Kafir house, the dance of Kafir women, dedicated to the gods, while the men are on a campaign. It is noteworthy that women at the same time wore a horned headdress, with horns made from human hair. The Nuristanis believed that the birth of a four-horned goat is God's providence and brings good luck. Robertson wrote that as soon as the men set out on a campaign, the women leave their business in the fields, gather in the countryside, and begin a dance that lasts most of the day and all night. We are familiar with another horned headdress, which is also a talisman- This .
In addition to the aforementioned George S. Robertson, who wrote the book "The Kafirs of the Hindu Kush", the Norwegian ethnographer Georg Morgenstierne also contributed to the preservation of the rites of the Kafirs for history. In 1929, he photographed and filmed the fire sacrifice ritual of the Nuristanis, which was very similar to that described in the Rig Veda.
Yes, and the cosmology of the Nuristanis was similar to the Aryan. They divided the universe into three worlds: Urdesh - the world of the gods, Michdesh - the world of living people, Yurdesh - the world of the dead. They confessed and horse cult, which was not used on the farm. There were many gods in the Nuristani pantheon. God Imra-Yamra-Mara- the supreme god of all kafirs-Nuristanis, the creator who revived other gods with his breath, the lord of life and death. He is also the god of the sky and clouds. He placed the sun and the moon in the sky. It was he who gave the infidels cattle and dogs, wheat and tools for cultivating the soil, and taught them economic activities. Another god called Munjem Malik- King of the Middle World. He was periodically killed, and he was reborn in his son, whose name was the same. Winter is dedicated to this god. God Mon(Mundy) is a demon fighter. He also sent rain to the earth and was an intermediary between people and gods. God Indr(Inder) - the patron of viticulture and the manufacture of wine, which replaced catfish among the kafirs. God Gish(Givish) is the god of war. God Wooshum- god of justice and wealth. Goddess Dizani- the main female deity.
The Nuristanis also had many minor gods: the goddess Sanju, responsible for the storehouses of wheat and stocks of baked milk, the goddess Nirmali, who represented the “impure” side of femininity, was in charge of childbirth and menstruation, the god Bagisht is the patron of waters, the god Nong is the ruler of the winter cold, the goddess Kshumai is the sovereign of alpine meadows and wild goats and the patroness of the grain harvest and fruits. However, all this is long gone, and now the Nuristani "have no god but Allah ...".
The style of life among the Nuristanis has changed little. Men continue to do what they have been doing for centuries - they graze small cattle, goats, and women grow barley and millet, prepare fodder and firewood. Horticulture (apples, apricots), viticulture, beekeeping, picking wild fruits and berries, and handicrafts are also common. They continue to live in clans and tribes.
“Among the Nuristanis, at least two types of social gradation are known. There are ranks of elders: the top of the social hierarchy is justas(elders, both men and women could become elders), and kaneashi(a kind of candidate for elders). Initiation into jastas was accompanied by a special ritual treat. Public gradation of male heroes: a kafir who killed at least one enemy received the name shurmoch. When he returned to the village, the neighbors greeted him with cheers: “E shuro-shurei-shuro!” Relatives and neighbors honored him, showered him with grains of wheat, tied a ribbon with four shells over his shoulder, crowned his head with a pheasant sultan.
The man who killed seven enemies received the title leimoch. The highest title was pyrymoch- a man perfect in everything, brave, rich, hospitable. The Nuristanis had two strata of slaves - bari And lane(lavyn), elements of the first of which have survived to the present. Bari - hereditary slaves - artisans, their status is unchanged. Free Nuristani did not enter into marriage relations with them, did not take food. Bari usually settled on the outskirts of the village, engaged in blacksmithing, made weapons, metal and stone utensils. They did not attend the mosque and did not perform Muslim rites; there are suggestions that they are descendants of the ancient pre-Kafir population of Nuristan. Slaves - lane existed exclusively among the Kantos tribe; they were free people who were enslaved for debts. By paying a ransom, they could regain their former status. Slaves - bari and lane free Nuristani could sell, give as a dowry.
Family. Women gave birth outside the village, in a special place. They returned seven days after the birth. Children were given a name only when they were 12 years old (name after their father or grandfather), at the same time they put on pants (before a specially performed ceremony, they could not wear pants within Nuristan). Marriage was concluded in an agreement between the groom or the parents of the groom and the father of the bride. For the bride, a ransom was paid to her father. Before the bride entered the groom's house, she also received a sum of money. At the wedding, they organized competitions in running, tug of war, pushing a stone and wrestling. Women and men were separated during the holiday. The wife was understood as the property of the husband, he could sell it to anyone at any time.
Funeral. If a leimoch or a pyrymach died, then a crude statue of the deceased was made of wood or straw, and one of his slaves (or one of his neighbors, a free man) took him on his back and jumped (danced?) through the streets of the village for some time. Then the corpse was placed on a high place, it was available for public viewing. After seven days and nights, he was buried in a coffin along with weapons (if it was a man) or jewelry (if it was a woman). The entrails were taken out and placed in clay vessels, buried separately. A wooden statue of the deceased was placed on the grave. The funeral was accompanied by a ritual meal, which included sumri - barley cakes crumbled in melted butter. A pot of smoke was placed in the grave of a woman ... " L.M. mints"Races and Peoples".
Pieces of Aryan heritage can be found in Belozhistan- an area that is located at the junction of the regions of the Middle East and Hindustan. It includes the provinces that are part of the neighboring states: Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Baluchistan is famous for its embroidery and carpet weaving, in the ornaments of which we can easily recognize the elements used by embroiderers Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
However, people with signs of the white race do not live only in the north of Afghanistan. Is there a province in this country Herat, one of the largest provinces of the country, which is located in the west and borders on Iran.
Most likely, these are representatives of the Uzbek community of Herat, which is very large and has been living there for a long time. From what time? For example, the highly revered Uzbek poet, philosopher and statesman Alisher Navoi lived there in the 15th century (1444-1501), who lived there all his life, however, then it was the Timurid Khorasan. The last photo is of children from Jalalabad in western Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, there is another people, among which people of Caucasian appearance are not uncommon. This - Khazar or Hazaras.
Are these Khazars the descendants of those with whom I wanted to deal Prophetic Oleg? Do you remember from Pushkin: “How is the Prophetic Oleg now going to take revenge on the unreasonable Khazars”? Or the descendants of those who were defeated by Prince Svyatoslav? It is not known, but scientists insist that the Khazars are a people of Mongolian origin and they are considered descendants of Genghis Khan. The latter, by the way, explains the "Caucasian" Khazars. After all, it is already known that Genghis Khan was not a Mongoloid, which was reflected by Western authors in their works. For example, shown in "Book on the Diversity of the World" Italian merchant Marco Polo(1254-1324) and also painted by a French engraver Pierre Duflo. Despite the impressive time difference between the works, in both cases there are no Mongoloid features in the appearance of Genghis Khan.
Among the inhabitants inhabiting modern Iran, the overwhelming majority of them are quite oriental in appearance, light-skinned people with European features, with blue or green eyes, are very noticeable.
Quite often among ordinary Iranians there are people of the most Slavic kind, and even with blond hair.
There are many light-eyed among Iranian actresses, actors, models, musicians and media people. For example, Claudia Lynx (Claudia Lynx), which is called "Goddess of Persia"- a singer, actress, model and, along with all this, a certified translator. Mohamed Reza Golzar (Mohammad Reza Golzar) actor and musician. Parsa Piruzfar (Parsa Pirouzfar)- an actor. Leila Milani (Leyla Milani Khoshbin)- Model, actress and TV presenter. Mohamed Reza Ghafari (Mohammad Reza Ghaffari)- an actor.
White people also make up a significant proportion of Iran's top political elite: Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Ardashir Lariddani (Ardashir Larijani), Mayor of Tehran Mohamed Baher Ghalibaf (Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf), Chief Advisor to the President Mohamed Ramin (Mohammad Ramin), Deputy Chairman of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, Ayatollah Mohamed Yazdi (Mohammed Yazdi), grandson of Islamic Revolution leader Ayatollah Khomeini, Hassan Khomeini (Hassan Khomeini).
Although, it must be admitted that about the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in 1979, you can’t say that. However, given his pedigree, this could not be. The fact is that the Persian Pahlavi dynasty consisted of only two people, father and son, and ruled for only 54 years (from 1925 to 1979), while the previous Qajar dynasty ruled for more than a century and a quarter (1796-1925), but was overthrown by the father of the last Shah, Reza Pahlavi. He came from a modest military family - his grandfather and father served in the Persian army. After the death of his father, strife began in the family over the inheritance. Reza's mother was the youngest of the wives and therefore the most disenfranchised. She had to take her son, leave her husband's house and go to Tehran. There, a boy at the age of 14 was enrolled as a private in Persian Cossack brigade, which was modeled on the Russian Cossack regiments, armed and trained under the guidance of Russian officers, and rose to the rank of general. By the way, the Persian Cossack brigade was commanded by a Russian officer who was directly subordinate to the Shah. And in 1916, Reza became the commander of the Kuzvinsky detachment of the Cossack brigade. For the rest of his life he walked in Russian Cossack uniform.
The history of the creation of the Persian regiment is interesting. From the end of the 19th century, Russia and England competed for influence on Persia, which led the country's leadership to the decision to modernize the army. At first, the British volunteered to modernize the Persian Armed Forces, but they were in no hurry to raise the combat effectiveness of the Persians, because they did not want to create problems for themselves, wanting to take the country under their "protectorate". They were very attracted to Persian oil. Seeing that the British were of little use, Shah Nasser-ed-din in 1879 asked Russia to help create a combat-ready military formation capable of actually fulfilling the tasks assigned to him. What was done by the lieutenant colonel of the Russian General Staff Domantovich.
However, Great Britain did not abandon its attempts to take control of Persia. For example, in 1919, British crown diplomats handed over a multi-thousand dollar bribe to the Persian government, which negotiated an agreement. As a result, Persia almost completely turned into an English protectorate. A scandal broke out, the pro-British government resigned. The next government also fell. The reason was the categorical refusal to transfer the Persian Cossack brigade to British officers. In short, there was only one way out.
In February 1921, Reza Pahlavi led a campaign of 2,000 Cossacks against Tehran, organized a military coup, removed the Qajar dynasty from power, liberated Persia from political dependence on England and forced British troops to leave the country. In the future, he produces a series of radical reforms aimed at making the country strong and independent. He did not have relations with Soviet Russia. He did not like the Bolsheviks in the same way as his colleagues - the Cossacks. Although he always treated Russia and Russians with great sympathy. By the way, Shah knew Russian very well, and his military and state views were significantly influenced by the Russian military school, which he passed. It was he who, in 1935, demanded that foreign states begin to officially use self-name states - Iran, instead of the previously used name Persia. Such was the father of the last Shah of Iran.
As you can clearly see, it is difficult to call the last Shah a Caucasoid, he did not inherit from his ancestors either light-eyed or fair-haired. However, he tried to choose wives of European appearance for himself. He married three times. Shah's first wife Fawziya, was an Egyptian princess, the daughter of the king of Egypt, Fuad I. She was a woman of incredible beauty, a dazzling blue-eyed brunette. They married in 1939, but life did not work out with her. A daughter was born in the marriage, the Shah needed an heir, and after 6 years they divorced.
Rumor has it that in 1949 the Shah made an offer to the famous actress Grace Kelly, but she rejected it, fearing that the Shah would ban her from filming and force her to convert to Islam. By the way, having married Prince Rainier of Monaco, she had to do what she feared in the case of the Shah - to leave the cinematic career at the insistence of her husband.
She became the second wife of Shah Mohammed Reza in 1951 (of half German origin). She was the daughter of a representative of the noble Bakhtiyari tribe. (Bakhtiari) from southern Iran, who in the 1950s was the Iranian ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany and his German wife Eva Karl, who died in Russia. Shah Mohammed was madly in love with the green-eyed beauty Soraya, but, unfortunately, they had no children, and the Shah needed an heir. He thought about taking a second wife who would give birth to a son for him, and also proposed changing the constitution of Iran so that after his death the throne would be inherited by his brother. Soraya was against the first option, and the Majlis was against the second. In 1958 they divorced.
The Shah's third wife was Farah Diba, an Azerbaijani from a noble and wealthy family of Tabriz. Her paternal grandfather at the end of the 19th century was the Iranian ambassador to the Romanov court. She bore the Shah four children. But not only this, he entered the history of Iran. The Dowager Empress of Iran Farah Pahlavi was a very highly educated woman, in addition to Persian she was fluent in Azerbaijani, English and French. Always dressed fashionably and elegantly. Together with her husband, she actively participated in the modernization of the country, fought for the rights of women, which caused discontent among the Shiite clergy. Thanks to her activity, many museums were opened in Iran. In addition, she returned to the country once exported creations of national artists.
In addition to the fact that the Shah tried to raise Iran's production to a modern level, not limited only to the sale of oil, he launched huge construction in Iran - they built factories, roads, bridges, tried to reform agriculture, allocating land to the peasants practically at the expense of the state, he tried to make Iran as secular as possible. In addition, he even introduced for a short time the reckoning not from the Hijra (the year of the Prophet Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina, from which the Muslims lead their reckoning), but from the beginning of the Achaemenid dynasty (1976 from the Nativity of Christ was declared by him instead of 1355 Hijri 2595 year of Shahinshah power). However, he was forced to cancel this unpopular innovation.
This and other reforms caused dissatisfaction among the clerics, and in 1979 the Shah was overthrown in the wake of the Islamic Revolution. Islamic fundamentalists, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, came to power, and the Shah was forced into exile and died in exile in Cairo the following year. It is noteworthy that the British, who together with the Americans, however, had 50% of the profits in the Iranian oil business, privately asked the Shah not to ask them for political asylum, otherwise it would have Negative influence on British relations with the new Islamic Republic. The Shah was bitterly disappointed with the behavior of the Western "partners", but did not ask for asylum ...
He had to wander the world in search of asylum: Morocco, Bahamas, Mexico, USA, Panama. No less vile act with the overthrown shah and his other "partners" - the United States. They allowed him to stay in the Bahamas for 3 months, on the condition that he would not make any statements or take any steps. Also, the Carter administration was reluctant to grant him permission to visit New York.
Shah urgently needed surgery for a progressive lymphoma discovered in 1977. After the treatment, the Shah was quickly escorted out of the country. The US did not want friction with the new Iranian government. Oil revenues, you know. Unfortunately, the Shah needed a second operation. Two American officials flew to Panama, where he was, and demanded abdication for the operation. The Shah refused and, at the urgent invitation of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, flew to Cairo. He died in the hospital and was buried with military and national honors. His body rests in the Al-Refai Mosque in Cairo. The widow of Shah Mohammed Pahlavi, Empress Farah, became regent for her eldest son, and when he turned 20, he became Reza Shah II. However, as time passed, the mother advised her son to forget about the throne of Iran and lead the life of a private person. Thus ended the history of the last Persian dynasty, which 2500 years The existence of the country was at least 20.
In all this history, the efforts of the last shahs to return to the very ancient roots of Iranian statehood are of undoubted interest for us. The first Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty changed the name of the country. In 1935, he asked the League of Nations to name the country Iran (eran), but not Persia. He substantiated this by the fact that the inhabitants themselves call their country "Irani" (the country of the Aryans), and the Persians are one of ethnic groups. The area from which they come from - Pars (Fars), was the center of political power during the period of the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires. They called the country of the Aryans Persia after the name of one region Greeks after the empire was conquered by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.
Indeed, the state of the Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 BC) was called Aryanam Xsahram(Old Persian state of the Aryans), and in the era of the Zoroastrian Sassanid dynasty (224-651 AD) before the Arab conquest, Persia was officially called Eransahr(Eranshahr) - aryan kingdom. Some researchers ( Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sarah Stewart, for example, in his book Birth of the Persian empire) believe that the conquerors of Iran tried to remove the names of the country from the official circulation as a kingdom or a country Aryan. For example, the Greek rulers tried to withdraw from circulation - Aryanam Xsahram, and the Muslim conquerors tried to seize Eransahr.
However, completely destroy the name "arias" still failed, although the names of the Aryan empires were forgotten. Instead, the names of the territories appeared on the Greek maps - Ariana, Aria. For example, the Greek mathematician, astronomer, geographer, philologist and poet, head of the Library of Alexandria, Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC), on the site of Persia, showed a territory called Ariana (Ariana). To be fair, this map was reconstructed in the 19th century by Sir Edward Bunberry (Edward Herbert Bunbury (1811-1895)). He wrote a two-volume history book with the long title "A History of Ancient Geography among the Greeks and Romans from the Earliest Ages till the Fall of the Roman Empire"(History of the ancient geography of the Greeks and Romans with early centuries until the fall of the Roman Empire) and published it in 1879. Yes, and the Greek astrologer, astrologer, mathematician, mechanic, optician, music theorist and geographer Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-c. 170), who, like Eratosthenes at one time worked in Alexandria, also indicated the region on his maps Aria
in Persia. His maps were published by Sebastian Münster in 1540 in Ptolemy's Geography.
Strabo (64/63 BC - c. 23/24 AD), a Greek historian and geographer, also wrote about Ariana: “The name Ariana extends to part of Persia and Media, as well as to the Bactrians and Sogdians in the north; for they speak almost the same language, but with slight differences ... the inhabitants were called Ariani».
Also interesting is the fact that "Ariaramne" (Ariyaramna) was an old Persian name and came from arya(Aryans) and raman(joy, peace) and meant "one who brings peace to the Aryans." The name Ariaramnes was carried according to various historical sources: the great-grandfather of Darius the Great, the commander of Darius the Great, the nobleman at the court of Xex, three Cappadocian (modern Turkey) kings, the priest of the cult of Mitra, whose grave stone was also found on the territory of modern Turkey. In the Crimea, in Kerch, gravestones were found, one of which was engraved with a rider and the inscription Daiskos son of Ariaramnes, and on the other "Ariaramn son of Ariarat".
We can only guess for what reason the last dynasty wanted to become the successor of the founders of the Persian Empire - Aryans. A possible reason may be the fact that, wanting to build a progressive and strong state from a provincial state of the Middle East, stuck in the Middle Ages, which could become not an object of world politics, a political and economic toy in the hands of the main players, but an equal subject, the shah understood that the example should be appropriate. And a better and more inspiring example than the Persian Empire two and a half thousand years ago during the reign of the Aryan dynasty Achaemenid(705-330 BC) was hard to find. The announcement of the country as the successor of the state that carried the greatness of Iran in world history for hundreds of years, while affirming that the country has more than two thousand years of statehood experience, was a very strong move in terms of the revival of the country.
If this is so, then we must pay tribute to the man who was born in the village and began his career as an ordinary Persian Cossack brigade, and evil tongues even claim that at first he was a batman with a Russian officer. The picture shows the future Shah of Iran and the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Khan with his colleague in the Persian Cossack Brigade, 1910s Researchers claim that on the neck of the future ruler of Iran - Russian award, namely the Order of St. Stanislav, 2nd degree, although the shah's biography does not indicate the fact of his awarding any Russian awards.
And the pace of recovery was impressive. Iran experienced a special rise from 1963 to 1978. An economic boom began. The people got the opportunity to breathe more freely, the women took off the veil (an example was set by the sisters of the last Shah, princesses Ashraf and Shams, who took off the veil back in 1934). Here are the successes that the last check achieved:
1. Growth rates of industrial production (per year). According to this indicator, Iran under Pahlavi ranked 2nd in Asia after Japan:
1962-1968 – 8,8%
1968-1972 – 11,5%
1973-1978 – 26%
2. GDP growth rates (per year):
1961-1966 – 6,7%
1967-1977 – 10,8%
3. GNP growth rate was more than 10% per year. From 1960 to 1970 it quadrupled and reached $15 billion. GNP (per capita) increased from 1963 to 1978 100$/year before 1521$/year.
4. GDP (per capita) increased from $174 in 1953 to $2400 in 1979.
5. Iran's population increased from 1966 to 1977 by 7.9 million people - from 25.8 to 33.7 million.
6. Revenues from the extraction and sale of oil for 2 years (from 1972 to 1974) increased 8 times: from $ 2.4 billion in 1972 to $ 20 billion in 1974. From 1973 to 1978. the treasury received over $100 billion from the sale of oil.
7. By 1970, 1.5 million peasant families (about 9 million people, or half of the entire peasant population of Iran) received land plots as a result of the land reform, during which the state bought land plots from landowners and sold them to small-land peasants at a price 30% below the market price (in installments).
8. The Agricultural Development Fund increased its budget from 1968 to 1974. 4 times: from 1 to 4 billion rials.
9. Thanks to the "corps of reconstruction and development" agricultural production in the period from 1964 to 1970. increased its volume by 80% , and also increased in cost by 67%.
10. The area of irrigated land increased from 2 million acres in 1968 to 5.6 million in 1977, thanks to the construction of many dams and the nationalization of all water resources.
11. Number of higher educational institutions increased from 16 in 1960 to 148 in 1974. The number of private kindergartens increased from 202 in 1966 to 366 in 1973. The number of technical schools increased from 1960 to 1975 from 64 before 508 . From 1964 to 1972, the "enlightenment corps" taught literacy to 1.5 million people.
12. Free and compulsory 8-year education for all children under the age of 14 was introduced, as well as free distribution of milk to schoolchildren. In 1974, a system of free higher education was introduced. By 1975 over 60% of the population were literate (in 1964 - only 30% ).
13. 100 thousand students were sent to study abroad. They were given money on credit, with the condition of returning only 25% of the total amount.
14. Bank investment increased from 1973 to 1975 5 times.
15. Iran has the strongest army in the entire Near and Middle East (400 thousand people + 40 thousand Shah's guards). The most powerful hovercraft fleet in the world, the most advanced air defense missile system in the Third World countries. In terms of air force and helicopter fleet, Iran surpassed all NATO countries except the United States.
16. The urbanization of the country was in full swing. If in 1966 he lived in cities 31% population, then by 1978 - more than 50% .
17. 15 automobile factories were built, producing both a wide variety of Western and Eastern car models (“Lincolns” and “Toyotas”), and cars own production("peikans").
18. Several major highways were built in Tehran, like western highways - "shahvei".
19. From 1974 to 1978 built 9 nuclear reactors, more 2 were under construction.
20. Iran's external debt at that time was 0$ .
21. The unemployment rate was less than 1% .
22. In terms of public health, Iran ranked 9th in the world. For 3 years, the “health corps” cured about 10 million people.
23. 6 million people were included in the social security program adopted in 1975, which consists in providing up to 100% of the total wages during retirement. By the early 1980s, the program was supposed to include the entire population Iran.
24. Free food has been introduced for needy mothers and all newborns under the age of 2 years.
25. Subsidies have been allocated to maintain stable prices in the food market.
26. In 1963, women received the right to vote.
27. More than 9 million trees have been planted in the country, and 70,000 acres (280 km) of "green belts" have been created around cities and along major highways.
28. Iranian passport allowed to visit more than 100 countries, incl. all European, without a visa (now - only 14 )…»
When Islamic fundamentalists came to power, secular rights and freedoms were put an end to, and completely different orders were established in the country. Ayatollah Khomeini, who came to power in the wake of the Islamic Revolution, abandoned the course of technological modernization of the country and planned to return to the economic and social norms of a "true Islamic society". In Iran, in his opinion, "neither the West nor the East, but Islam" should have been established. Such volition led to the fact that in 10 years (from 1979 to 1989) Iran lost everything that the Shah so stubbornly built. Then, however, they came to their senses - the war with Iraq enlightened them, and they focused on an export-oriented economy. And the people had to forget about the secularism of the state.
– In 2001, there were 575 “honor” violent suicides, 375 of which were by fire. (Let us clarify that this kind of suicide serves to atone for the guilty person for an immoral act, most often for adultery).
- Iranian women who refuse to wear the hijab are subject to imprisonment for a period of 2 months.
- Punishment for adultery: a woman is buried up to her neck in sand and stoned to death.
– In Tehran alone, 4,000 prostitutes aged between 10 and 17 are physically and sexually abused daily.
Children's executions:
- Iranian legislation allows the death penalty for boys from the age of 15, and for girls - from 9.
– Since 1990, at least 46 children under 18 have been executed in Iran.
Iran is the only country in the world that executed teenagers in 2008.
– During the reign of Ahmadinejad, the rate of child executions increased by about 300%.
– To date, more than 100 juvenile offenders are awaiting execution.
No wonder the last shah tried so hard to dissociate himself from Islamic “traditions” that he even introduced a different calendar, which, by the way, lengthened (and rightfully) the history of the country by almost 1300 years, but such trifles were completely useless to religious fanatics. Islam has taken root in Iran since the 15th century, despite the fact that the Arabs tried to conquer the country starting from the 7th, but the Persians stubbornly pursued their reconquista. So 30 years of the shah's reforms, of course, could not outweigh 400 years of Muslim ideology dominating the country, and the old calendar was returned.
Yes, the shah did not succeed with the calendar from the reign of the Achaemenids. But it turned out with state symbols. Even Shah Reza Khan in 1925 ordered to make a new crown, instead of the so-called “crown of Kiani”, which had been used for a long time by the shahs of the previous dynasty.
They took as a basis one of the crowns of the Sasanian dynasty, which ruled in Iran for more than 400 years (224 to 651 AD). Why one from crowns? Because Iranian archaeologists counted more than 100 types of crowns of this period among 32 Sasanian rulers, judging by the images on coins, bas-reliefs, silverware, etc. Crowns, as they believe, not only showed the cultural, economic, social and historical realities of the time of each reign, but also character traits every monarch. The main motif of the crown is the sun which was revered by the Aryans. Sassanids were Zoroastrians. As you know, the Zoroastrians worshiped fire, but not only. Around the 1st century AD. in Zoroastrianism, the cult of Mitra, one of the closest assistants of Ahura Mazda, gradually came to the fore. And Mithra, among other things, was the god of the sun and light, and he was often depicted as a sun god driving a chariot. So, in the crown of the new Iranian Pahlavi dynasty Sun in the form of a huge 60-carat yellow diamond and rays of white diamonds was located in the center. In general, a lot of jewelry from the treasury of the previous shah went to a new crown weighing 2 kilograms: 3,380 diamonds (1,144 carats), 5 emeralds (200 carats) and 368 pearls. This crown was used only twice - during the coronation of Reza Pahlavi on April 25, 1926 and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on October 26, 1967.
Aryan symbols are also present on the coat of arms of Iran, the personal coat of arms of the Shah and his wife, the shahban (that was the name of the empress of Iran), as well as the prince. In addition, the full title of shah, or rather shahinshah (king of kings), and this is the ancient Iranian title of the supreme ruler, which was used by the Achaemenids (705-330 BC), was as follows: His Imperial Majesty Shahinshah Aryamehr (the last word means "Sun of the Aryans").
So, when creating the new Imperial Emblem of Iran in the late 1940s, the young Pahlavi dynasty set itself the goal of enclosing in it the 2500-year-old continuous statehood of Iran.
In the center of the coat of arms is a round shield divided into four parts. In the first quarter there is a walking Lion, carrying a golden Sun on his back and holding a silver sword in his right paw. a lion And Sun were one of the main symbols of Iran, in the period from 1846 to 1980, but in general it has become a famous symbol in Iran since the 12th century.
In the second quarter is the so-called Faravahar- a winged disk, the main symbol of Zoroastrianism, which was originally a "winged sun" (a symbol of power and divine origin), and the human image was added to it later. Faravahar was adopted by the Persian Achaemenid dynasty (648-330 BC) from the Babylonians as a symbol of the Supreme God - Ahura Mazda. Thus, in the Pahlavi coat of arms, the Faravahar symbolizes the Achaemenid era. Also in the upper corner of this quarter is Sun.
In the third quarter of the coat of arms is located Zulfikar- a sword with a forked blade at the end. It was taken by the prophet Mohammed, who got it during the division of trophies, after the Muslims defeated the army of Mecca in the battle. According to legend, the Zulfiqar sword has magical powers and magical properties. The Zulfikar sword symbolizes the Arab-Muslim conquest of Iran and the Islamic (Shia) history of the statehood of Iran (651 - to this day). On top of the sword is a golden five pointed star.
In the fourth quarter is Simurgh- the mythical bird of justice and happiness (according to other sources - winged dog, whose body is covered with fish scales, and whose tail is peacock). It symbolizes the era of two dynasties - the Parthian kings of the Arshakids (250 BC - 224 AD) and the Persian kings of the Sassanids (224-651). It is noteworthy that the Scythians, Saks and Sarmatians had a similar deity with a similar name - Semargl - heavenly dog.
And in the center of the large shield of the Imperial coat of arms is a small one with the image of a mountain Damavend(the highest point in Iran), from which the sun rises. Yes, the young Pahlavi dynasty made it clear that they - on the side sun not moon. A large shield is held by two golden lions. In heraldry, the lion is a symbol of strength, courage and generosity. However, this is not the only reason why the Pahlavi dynasty placed it on their coat of arms.
The lion is also the symbol of the Aryans. and is presented as their protector, a source of strength, wisdom and power. It is noteworthy that when decorating the Achaemenid palace in Persepolis, various and multiple images of lions were also used. For example, a lion clinging to a bull is depicted on the main staircase, which some researchers attribute to the symbolic scene of the spring equinox and that the city itself was built exclusively for holding the main Zoroastrian holiday in it - Navruz - the New Year.
U shahbanu (empress) was his personal coat of arms, which also referred to the Achaemenid era with its symbols. Its main element was the image of the famous gold bracelet from the Amu Darya treasure (otherwise, the Oxus treasure) (5th century BC). Like the cylinder of Cyrus the Great, which is now in the British Museum, this bracelet is known throughout the world and is calling card Achaemenid culture. By the way, the British were generous and sent Cyrus' cylinder to the celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Persian state, which the Shah organized in 1971. The cylinder is indeed an amazing artifact. It is itself made of clay and has a decree inscribed in cuneiform, which can be regarded as the world's first known declaration of human rights. This decree established religious and ethnic freedom, the prohibition of slavery and any oppression, the seizure of property by force or without compensation. And the conquered lands themselves decided whether to submit to the authority of Cyrus. Here is such a document that was used as the main element of the official emblem of the holiday.
Emblem of the Empress she is crowned with a crown, with which she was crowned in 1967. And the bracelet in the Scythian animal style is made in the form of two griffins, although not quite ordinary ones. Instead of a cross between a lion and an eagle, the bracelet is a cross between a mountain goat, a lion and a bird. There is another interesting moment. On the bas-reliefs of Persepolis, one can find images of people who bring offerings to the king in the form of similar bracelets from the Amu Darya treasure. In the coat of arms of the crown prince of Iran, a two-headed bird is visible - an eagle or a falcon - with a solar symbol on its chest.
Currently, the coat of arms of Iran is a stylized inscription "Allah" in Arabic-Persian letters and consists of four crescents and a sword, which symbolize the Islamic creed - "There is no God but Allah" and the 5 pillars of Islam - the main prescriptions of the Sharia, mandatory for all Muslims.
The five pillars of Islam are: shahada (declaration of faith: “I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the slave and messenger of Allah”), namaz (five daily prayers), uraza (fasting during the month of Ramadan), zakat (religious tax in favor of the needy) and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
As you can see, instead of lions, the sun and other Aryan sun signs, the Iranians were forced to use some nondescript sticks of the lunar cult of the sect of the second level of Judaism, and, in addition, Muslim orthodoxies decisively suppressed the very memory of the existence of the great empires of the Aryans on the territory of Iran.
Median Empire
What were these empires? The very first Aryan empire was the Medes. Starting from 2 thousand BC. Aryan tribes came in waves from the north to the Iranian Highlands - a vast territory currently occupied by Iran and Afghanistan, including fleeing from adverse climatic conditions. They came from different places, from the lands from the Dnieper to the Urals. They gave this land their name - Ariana. Time has passed. Some tribes settled in the west and created a state Mitanni, some went to the south of the Iranian Highlands, some turned to Northern India.
Historical science has little to say about them. For example, there was such a tribe Kassites. They are also called cossei, Kissii or porridge(Akkad.). They lived in the mountains of the huge mountain range of the Iranian Zagros plateau in 2-1 thousand BC. In the middle of the 18th century BC. Kassites invaded Babylonia, and by the 16th century. BC. took over the whole country and ruled it from 1518 to 1204. BC, forming his own dynasty, the so-called Kassite dynasty). Scientists find it difficult to name their ethnicity, as well as what language they spoke. Although there are some few archaeological finds, which allows us to hypothesize that Kassites were also Aryans. For example, the Kassite cylinder seal with Kolovrat.
In addition, some scientists, such as the German racologist Hans Friedrich Karl Günther, defined their language as Indo-European ("Raciology of the Jewish people"). The Kassites used chariots and were engaged in horse breeding (which is a kind of "calling card" of the Aryans, who in those distant times were called conquerors on chariots). The names of the rulers of the Kassites were also Aryan: Suryas, Indas, Maruttas, as the British historian and archaeologist writes Veer Gordon Child in his book The Aryans, the Founders of European Civilization.
At the beginning of 1 thousand BC. a second wave of Aryans arrived, much more numerous. Part of the Aryan tribes - Sogdians, Scythians, Saks, Parthians and Bactrians - continued to lead a nomadic lifestyle, but two tribes - Medes And Persians chose settled and settled in the Zagros valleys. The Medes settled in the north, and the Persians in the south. Rather, the Persians first settled to the northwest of the Medes, but the Assyrians pushed them south and southwest. In general, the Medes and Persians often fought with Assyria in the 9th and 8th centuries. BC, which sought to conquer them. The Median tribes were conquered by Assyria at the beginning of the 8th century BC, but in 673 BC. e. they rebelled, defeated Assyria and created their own state with its capital in Ekbatan (modern Hamadan in western Iran). United the tribes and built the capital of the leader named Deyoc(Persian Dayukku). His son Fraort(Persian Fravartish), according to Herodotus, was not satisfied with Media alone, but conquered the Persians and other peoples of Asia and even went to war against Assyria. So Urartu, Northern Mesopotamia, Parthia, Persia and part of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) gradually entered the empire. The Median kingdom extended almost to the Indus River. From a small tributary state, Media turned into the strongest power in the Middle East.
his successor Cyaxares(Persian Khvakhshatra) finally defeated the Assyrian state. Cyaxares died in 584 BC. His son Astyages(Persian Ishtuvegu) was forced to defend his kingdom from the Persians. After a long reign (about 30 years), Astyages was defeated in the fight against Cyrus(Kurush) - the founder of the Persian state, who by his mother belonged to the Median royal family (he was the grandson of Astyages). Media became one of the satrapies and paid tribute to the Persians, like other conquered peoples. Media paid 500 talents in gold, and also in horses. After all, the Medes were considered the best riders and have long been engaged in horse breeding. They were famous for their "Nisean" horses, which were bred on the Nisean plain and in Khorassan. It was in Mussels that they began to cultivate forage grass alfalfa, which was called "horse food". In addition, 50,000 royal horses grazed on the Median pastures on the way from Babylon to the Caspian Gates. By the way, they paid horses as a tribute to the Assyrians. The capital of Media, Ecbatana continued to be considered one of the capitals of first the Persian and then the Parthian kings, where they preferred to spend the hot summer months. The Median empire did not last long - from 678 to 559. BC. Strabo (64/63 BC - 23/24 AD), Greek geographer and historian, called her Great Mussel:
“Great Media in ancient times, after it destroyed the power of the Syrians, dominated all of Asia. Subsequently, however, under Astyages, Cyrus and the Persians deprived her of such great power, nevertheless, she continued to largely maintain her great-grandfather glory. Ecbatani was the winter capital of the Persian kings, as well as the Macedonians, who, after the subjugation of the Persians, owned Syria; and even in our time, this city provides the Parthian kings with the same conveniences and security. (Strabo. ed. A. Meineke, Geographica. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877). He also pointed to language similarity Medes and Scythians. (Strabo X 2, 8, 14).
According to Herodotus(484-425 BC) the Medes included 6 tribes: Buzes (the Busae), paretacenes (the Paretaceni), struchats (the Strukhat), arizants (the Arizanti), wake up (the Budii) and mages (the Magi). Of these, only one tribe does not raise questions regarding belonging to the Aryans. This - arisants, whose name comes from Arya - noble and Zantum- tribe, clan
The "Aryan" of the rest is more difficult to prove, although most of them are consonant with the names of the Scythian tribes. For example, the Median tribe wake up consonant with the name of the Budins - the Black Sea Scythians. The Paretakens were nomadic tribes that settled in Paretaken, a mountainous region between Persia and Media. Some researchers associate them with the paralatians, whom Herodotus called the "royal Scythians", who lived between the Dnieper and the Seversky Donets and in the steppe Crimea.
By the way, Iranian "paradata" denotes the heroes of archaic myths about the first dynasty of civilizing kings that existed on earth and denotes "primitives", "setters of the first social norms". Who were they booze, It's not clear yet. It is believed that the name comes from the Persian buza, which means aboriginal, autochthonous, that is, it turns out that they were not Aryans, although what their self-name is and how it really was, is unknown. But here the Slavic Buzhans, and the Bosnians, and the Bosporans, and the leader of the Antes Bus Beloyar, and Vasily Buslaev, who were much later than the Medes, come to mind.
Another mystery - struchata. Their name is consonant with the Sarmatian tribe that appeared later. satarchs who lived in the Crimea in the 2nd century AD. And the last Median tribe - mages. They were a priestly caste of the Zurvanists, a trend that emerged from Zoroastrianism, and presumably came from Sumer.
That the Medes were Aryans are evidenced by archaeological finds. Firstly, this is the use of solar symbols, including the swastika. In addition, in the decoration of many things, the main motive is the so-called "Scythian images" - a deer, a panther, a head of a vulture, a hare, a ram, made in the same Scythian style. The photo shows: a necklace of the 1st millennium BC, found during excavations in the province of Gilan, in northwestern Iran. Golden cup. From Kalardasht region. 10th century BC. Archaeological Museum. Tehran. Golden decorative pendant 8-7th century BC Northwest Iran. The tomb of the Median king Cyaxares with a carved sun over the entrance. golden bowl from Hasanlu (Hasanlu)- Archaeological excavations in the north-west of Iran. Museum of Bastam. It has a swastika on it, but all the available photos of this bowl on the Internet are made so that it is not visible. Only in one old and not very high quality photo, probably a scan from a book, you can see the swastika on the lion's thigh.
But what did the Medes themselves look like? On the wall of the Apadana palace in Persepolis there are relief images of the Medes (as historians have determined), but they are all executed in the so-called "Assyrian style" - with curled hair and a beard and in profile, and in drawings with black hair and beards. It seems like they are similar to some kind of "Eastern Mediterranean" race.
“However, the Bactrians, Medes and Persians themselves remembered that their Aryan ancestors looked different. So, according to legend, the famous Zarathustra had a family name Spitama which means "white". Actually, the ancient custom of the Persians to dye their beard and hair with henna in a fiery color (which is why the Turks called the Iranians “kyzylbashi” - redheads) is nothing more than an appeal to the red-haired prototype.
The above is confirmed by paleogenetics: thus, according to a study by a group of researchers of the Strasbourg Institute of Forensic Medicine, the study of the remains of Proto-Iranians - carriers of the Andronovo culture of Southern Siberia, most of them had blue or green eyes, pale skin and blond or red hair (Gazeta, 05/13/2009)”. (Alexey Vinogradov. “Russian secret. Where did Prince Rurik come from?”).
Achaemenid Empire
Aryan Medes rose for a short time. A vast territory remained under their control for a little over 80 years. They were replaced by the Aryan tribe Persians who came with them to Iran. The Persians are also mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions of the 9th century. BC. For example, in the inscription of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, which historians date to 843 BC, it is said about the region of Parsua - the Assyrians received tribute from 27 of its kings. Most likely, these were tribal leaders. This territory roughly equaled the modern Iranian province of Fars, the name of which is an Arabized form of the word Parsa, which meant both the country and the people of the Persians, as well as their capital Persepolis. The same Assyrian sources from the end of the 8th century BC. mention the country of Parsumash, and in 714 BC. the records of the Assyrian king Sargon II include the Persians as subjects of that king.
By the way, in Akkadian the name of this king means " true king and sounds like Sharrukin (Sar.ru.ki.in), that is, in Akkadian, the king was pronounced like this - sar (although in place of the africative “c” there is a hissing “sh”). For example, the title "King of Sumer and Akkad" in Akkadian was pronounced Sar Sumeri and Akkadi. However, not only the title of the Assyrian rulers is similar in sound to Russian " tsar". The main deity of the ancient Assyrians was the god of war Ashur– Vedic Asur, and in the ancient texts of the Luwians, Assyria was called Asuryavana, part of the territories of which much later became known as Surya and further Syria.
It is known that Surya is the Vedic sun god. In addition, according to the Greek historian Kefalion, the fourth king of the Assyrians was a king named Arius. So the empire of Assyria was not Semitic, as many oriental scholars want to present it. For the Semitic king would hardly have had the name Arius, and the name of the country and the supreme gods are Vedic, if the Semites had originally created Assyria, they would have given both the country and the supreme gods their names. It was just that in Assyria it was the same as in other countries around the world - to the autochthonous population, in this case the Semites, white people came brought them statehood and knowledge, became their rulers, made up a caste of warriors, clergy and top managers.
But we digress. Let's get back to the Persians. In 553 B.C. the ruler of Parsa Cyrus II (Persian Kurush), later called the Great, carried out a coup d'état and sat on the Median throne. Cyrus was from the Achaemenid clan, named after the ancestor - Achaemen, the leading family in the Persian tribe, called Pasargadas. At the same time he was the grandson of the Median ruler Astyaga(Ishtuvegu), whose daughter is named Mandana She was married to a noble Persian named Cambyses (Kambuja). Herodotus tells about this, as well as that Astyages ordered to kill the child after a prophetic dream. He dreamed that a vine grew out of his daughter's womb and that vine then grew throughout Asia. Dream interpreters explained the dream to him in such a way that his daughter's son would be king instead of him. He ordered his steward Harpag to kill the newborn, but it turned out that the boy was brought up by a shepherd, and then, when he reached adolescence, everything was revealed. Harpagus paid for the failure to fulfill his son's life. The cruel king ordered to kill the boy and cook a dish out of him for his father, which he did not suspect and ate his son. When everything was revealed, he decided to take revenge and helped Cyrus to win the Median throne.
It is surprising how popular the legend of the Persian king Cyrus and the dream of the Median king Astyages was in medieval Europe. On the Internet, you can find many miniatures of the 14th-15th centuries illustrating it. The pictures show: a miniature of the "dream of Astyages", 1420-1440, Madrid, National Library of Spain; miniature "Dream of Astyages" 1330-1340, Vienna, National Library of Austria; miniature "Cyrus, grandson of Astyages, king of Media, fed by animals", master Busiko (Boucicaut Master), France 1410-1430; miniature "Dream of Astyages", France, 15th century; miniature "Dream of Astyages", 1482, Brixen Cathedral, South Tyrol, northern Italy. It is noteworthy in these miniatures that the characters depicted on them - Caucasians, and all women - with light blond, even golden, hair.
Cyrus was very popular in medieval Europe, he was depicted not only in medieval miniatures, but also in engravings. The figure shows an engraving "Cyrus, King of Persia" from a set of four engravings "The Greatest Rulers of Antiquity" 1590s, Flemish painter and engraver Adriana Colart (Adriaen Collaert(1560-1618)). They depict Ninus, king of Nineveh, Cyrus, king of Persia, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY). Cyrus was depicted even on the stained glass windows of Christian churches. The figure shows a stained glass window in a Protestant church. Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune in Alsace, France. Long novels were also written about the Persian king, such as Artamene or Cyrus the Great (1649-1653) by Georges and Madeleine de Scudery. This 17th-century love-adventure novel is generally considered the longest novel ever published, which is not surprising. It took 1,954,300 words to write it, and 13,095 pages fit into 10 volumes.
Cyrus, along with other Persian kings Cambyses, Darius and Smerdis, were included in the Nuremberg Chronicle, the rarest book published in 1493, which contained a chronicle biblical history from the creation of the world, which was illustrated by 1809 hand-colored drawings. These books were an example for other books - in other words, all the rest were written off from them - therefore they were called by a tricky Latin word incunabula, What means "beginning, cradle". The book was published in Latin and German in a rather large circulation - Latin books were, according to various estimates, from 1400 to 1500 copies, and German - up to 1000.
The creator of this chronicle is considered Hartman Schedel(1440-1514) - a man of very broad interests - a doctor, humanist and historian, and he also loved books very much. His library, which served as the basis for the Nuremberg Chronicle, consisted of 370 manuscripts and 670 printed books - a huge number of “information carriers” for a private individual at that time. Or was he not a private individual? Unfortunately, who Mr. Schedel really was, and why he undertook to write a model biblical story for the peoples of Europe, we most likely will never know. And yes, in the Nurember Chronicle, all the Persian kings are depicted with a European appearance, however, as well as other characters on page 69 of the Chronicle, including Mordecai, Ezra and Judith. One Nehemiah, for some reason, got a Semitic appearance.
Another interesting depiction of Cyrus is on a collection of engravings published by Guillaume Rouyet, a French humanist and major publisher of books in Lyon, in 1553. The collection is called long and intricately: “Collections of images of people notable in the world, with the addition of their biographies, taken in abridged form from the best selected authors” (lat. Promptuarii iconum insigniorum a seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis). The collection contains about 950 portraits of historical figures, made using the woodcut method in the form of medals. Among them are the characters of the Bible, ancient and medieval history starting with Adam and Eve.
However, there is one oddity with the image of Cyrus. Usually, the full name and some other letters were written on the medals - either titles, or ranks and "positions". Moreover, on all the medals that can be found on the Internet, the names of individuals were written completely on one side, even such long ones as Artaxerxes. Moreover, the “position” of a historical person, such as king, rex, priest / saint, and sometimes even his “nationality”, was placed on another. So the odd thing is that the short name Cyrus, and written through i , not through y , for some reason divided into two parts. Happened CI RUS . So, maybe Kira was actually called Rus (he and in Persian it is pronounced Ku-rush), and Ci means some position, belonging to something or something else. The same can be seen in the engraving by Adrian Kolart. If you look closely at the inscription above CY RVS MAIOR , you can see that the space between CY And RVS much more than interletter, that is, they are two different words. Suffice it to recall the image of the cross from the grave of the well-known king arthur- the chief knight of all Britain, which was brought by William Camden in his book "Britain" (1586). On this cross it is clearly read REX ARTU RIUS , that is KING OF THE HORDE RUS.
The plot of the beheading of Cyrus by the Massagetian (Scythian) queen Tomiris was especially popular. Everyone knows this story told by Herodotus. “Cyrus, having crossed the Araks River and deepened into the territory of the Massagetae for one day's march, on the advice of the Lydian Croesus, set a trap for the Massagetae. The Persians left the camp with a supply of wine, which was defended by an incompetent unit, and the main troops retreated back to the river. The Massagetae, as soon as they overcame the enemy, lay down and began to feast, and having had their fill of food and wine, they fell asleep. The Persians, having come, killed many of them, and even more captured, among others, the son of the queen Tomiris, who commanded the Massagets, whose name was Spargalis. Upon learning of this, Tomyris sent a message to Cyrus: “Blood-hungry Cyrus, ... give me my son and leave this country with impunity ... If you don’t do this, then I swear to you by the sun, the lord of the Massagets, I will give you blood to drink, although you are insatiable”. The captive Spargapis persuades Cyrus to take off his shackles, and when he was released and as soon as he could control his hands, he took his own life.
Tomyris, when Cyrus did not obey her, having gathered all her army, entered into battle with Cyrus. Most of the Persian army was destroyed right there on the spot, and Tomiris put his head in a wine bag filled with human blood and said: “You killed me, alive and defeated you in battle, capturing my son with cunning. I’ll give you blood to drink, as I threatened…”(Dovatur A.I., Kallistov D.P., Shishova I.A. “The peoples of our country in the “History” of Herodotus. - M., 1982).
The pictures show: miniature "Tamaris, Queen of the Massagetae kills Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire", master Busiko (Boucicaut Master), France 1390-1430 Miniature from a theological work on Latin in poetic form "The Mirror of Human Salvation" (Speculum Humanae Salvationis), 1324, in which the events Old Testament serve as a form, a prototype for events from the New Testament. Painting by Rubens (1577-1640) "Queen Tomyris before the head of Cyrus". Note that Rubens painted the Masagete queen in kokoshnik, and her courtiers are more like Russian boyars. Painting by Victor Volfoet Jr. ( Victor Wolfvoet the Younger(1612-1652)). "Head of Cyrus brought to Queen Tomyris". Painting "Queen Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus" by Michiel Koksi (1499-1592), a late Renaissance Flemish painter.
Although there is evidence and the opposite of what Herodotus tells. It was the Persians who entered the camp specially left by the Massagets, got drunk there and fell asleep, and the soldiers of Tomiris killed the sleeping soldiers, including Cyrus. Talks about it Polyaine, Greek writer of Macedonian origin, 2nd c. AD, author of the work "Strategems" (8.28).
Actually, in the biography of the Persian king Kira many mythological plots, which may cast doubt on the very existence of such a person. His grandfather Astyages had the same dream as Prince Gostomysl and the companion of Father William the Conqueror about a plant growing from a woman's womb, which covers all of Asia / Great City / England with its crown. Astyages boiled the son of Harpagus in the same way as Tantalum of his son Pelops, in order to check whether Zeus was omniscient. He was fed with his milk by animals like Romulus and Remus. However, he wrote about Kira not only Herodotus but also the ancient Greek historian Ctesias who lived in the 5th century BC. and spent 17 years at the court of Artaxerxes II. He wrote a voluminous work "Peach", consisting of 23 books, in which he described not only the history of Persia, but also Assyria and Media. There are actually few original sources about Cyrus, but they do exist. This so-called Cyrus' cylinder, which lists a list of his victories, his gracious deeds and ancestors, and several private Babylonian documents.
To the question: why was the Persian king Cyrus (Pers. Kurus) so popular in the Middle Ages in Europe, the answer is simple. In the 14-15 centuries, and this is almost the middle of the last night of Svarog, Europe was already in full swing Christianity- the lunar cult (the cult of Osiris, Dionysus, etc.), which finally defeated the solar cult of life, the last stronghold of which - - the church destroyed for the crusades in 1209-1215. Everything that was connected with them, with Vedic knowledge and knowledge in general. was carefully destroyed and replaced with "correct" information, for example, the biblical creation of the world and other primitive folklore, as well as the substitution real history mankind - biblical, that is, the history of a single tribe - the Jews. It so happened that the reign of the Persian king Cyrus wormed its way into the "great" history of this tribe.
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Kalash are a small Dardic people inhabiting two valleys of the right tributaries of the Chitral (Kunar) River in the mountains of the southern Hindu Kush in the Chitral district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (Pakistan). The native language - Kalasha - belongs to the Dardic group of Indo-Iranian languages. The uniqueness of the people, surrounded on all sides by Islamized neighbors, lies in the fact that a significant part of it still professes a pagan religion that has developed on the basis of the Indo-Iranian religion and substratum beliefs.
History and ethnonym
The Dard peoples inhabiting Chitral usually unanimously consider the Kalash to be the natives of the region.
The Kalash themselves have legends that their ancestors came to Chitral through Bashgal and pushed the Kho people to the north, to the upper reaches of the Chitral River. Nevertheless, the Kalash language is closely related to the Khovar language. Perhaps this tradition reflects the arrival in the 15th century. in Chitral of a militant Nuristan-speaking group, which subjugated the local Dardo-speaking population. This group separated from the speakers of the Vaigali language, who still call themselves kalašüm, transferred their self-name and many traditions to the local population, but were assimilated by them linguistically.
The idea of Kalash as aborigines is based on the fact that in former times the Kalash inhabited a wider area in South Chitral, where many toponyms are still Kalash in nature. With the loss of militancy, the Kalash in these places were gradually forced out or assimilated by the speakers of the leading Chitral language Khovar.
spiritual culture
Kalash - the only people region, partially preserved traditional religion and not fully converted to Islam. Religious isolation of the Kalash began in the beginning. XVIII century, when they were subordinated to the mehtar (ruler) of Chitral and found themselves under the cultural pressure of the kindred Kho people, who had converted to Islam by that time. In general, the Chitral policy was relatively tolerant, and the Islamization of the region, carried out by Sunni mullahs and Ismaili preachers, was rather spontaneous and gradual. When carried out in the XIX century. the Durand Kalash lines remained in British possession, which saved them from the massive forced conversion to Islam carried out in 1896 by the Afghan emir Abdur Rahman in neighboring Nuristan.
Nevertheless, cases of Kalash conversion to Islam occurred throughout the entire modern history of the people. Their number increased after the 1970s, when roads were laid in the region and schools began to be built in Kalash villages. Conversion to Islam leads to the severing of traditional ties, as one of the Kalash elders Saifulla Jan says: "If someone from the Kalash converts to Islam, they can no longer live among us." As K. Jettmar notes, Kalash Muslims look with undisguised envy at Kalash pagan dances and fun festivities. At present, the pagan religion, which attracts the attention of numerous European tourists, is under the protection of the Pakistani government, which fears the extinction of the tourism industry in the event of the final "triumph of Islam."
Nevertheless, Islam and the Islamic culture of neighboring peoples have a great influence on the life of pagan Kalash and their beliefs, filled with plots and motifs of Muslim mythology. Kalash adopted men's clothes and names from their neighbors. Under the onslaught of civilization is gradually destroyed traditional image of life, in particular, “holidays of merit” go into oblivion. Nevertheless, the Kalash valleys are still a unique reserve that preserves one of the most archaic Indo-European cultures.
Religion
The traditional ideas of the Kalash about the world are based on the opposition of holiness and impurity. Mountains and mountain pastures, where the gods live and "their cattle" - wild goats, graze, have the highest holiness. Holy are also altars and goat-sheds. Muslim lands are unclean. Impurity is also inherent in a woman, especially during periods of menstruation and childbirth. Desecration brings everything related to death. Like the Vedic religion and Zoroastrianism, the Kalash religion provides for numerous cleansing ceremonies from filth.
The Kalash pantheon (devalog) is generally similar to the pantheon that existed among the Nuristani neighbors, and includes many deities of the same name, although it differs somewhat from the latter. There are also ideas about numerous lower demon spirits, primarily female.
Kalash shrines are open-air altars built from juniper or oak boards and furnished with ritual carved boards and idols of deities. Special buildings are built for religious dances. Kalash rituals consist primarily in public feasts, to which the gods are invited. The ritual role of young men who have not yet known a woman, that is, who have the highest purity, is clearly expressed.
The pagan deities of the Kalash have a large number of temples and altars throughout the valley where their people lived. They offer them sacrifices mainly consisting of horses, goats, cows and sheep, the breeding of which is one of the main industries of the local population. They also leave wine on the altars, thereby offering a sacrifice to the god Indra, the god of grapes. Kalash rituals are combined with holidays and are generally similar to the Vedic ones.
Like the bearers of the Vedic culture, the Kalash consider the crows to be their ancestors and feed them from their left hand. The dead are buried above the ground in special wooden coffins with ornaments, and wealthy representatives of the Kalash also set a wooden effigy of the deceased above the coffin.
The word gandau kalash refers to the tombstones of the Kalash valleys and Kafiristan, which differ depending on what status the deceased achieved during his lifetime. Kundrik is the second type of anthropomorphic wooden sculptures of the ancestors of the Kalash. It is a statue-amulet, which is installed in the fields or in the village on a hill - a wooden pole or a pedestal made of stones.
Endangered
At the moment, the culture and ethnicity of the Kalash is in danger of extinction. They live in closed communities, but the younger population is increasingly being forced to assimilate by marrying into the Islamic population, this is due to the fact that it is easier for a Muslim to find a job and feed a family. In addition, the Kalash receive threats from various Islamist organizations. 
