Faravahar (
Middle PersianMiddle Persian is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as Western Iranian language...
:
prʾwhr) is one of the best-known symbols of
ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster , after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is, in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e...
, a state religion of the ancient Persian Empires. In
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, the present-day successor state of the ancient
Persian DynastiesHistory of Iran has been intertwined to the history of a larger historical region, Greater Iran, which consists of the area from the Euphrates in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of...
, Zoroastrianism is no longer the official state religion; however, the Faravahar has now come to represent a national Persian symbol that reflects both ancient and modern Persia, which is now known as Iran.
http://aryansland.blogfa.com/8709.aspxhttp://padena.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%87%D8%B1/.
Faravahar (
Middle PersianMiddle Persian is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as Western Iranian language...
:
prʾwhr) is one of the best-known symbols of
ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster , after whom the religion is named. The term Zoroastrianism is, in general usage, essentially synonymous with Mazdaism, i.e...
, a state religion of the ancient Persian Empires. In
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, the present-day successor state of the ancient
Persian DynastiesHistory of Iran has been intertwined to the history of a larger historical region, Greater Iran, which consists of the area from the Euphrates in the west to the Indus River and Jaxartes in the east and from the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of...
, Zoroastrianism is no longer the official state religion; however, the Faravahar has now come to represent a national Persian symbol that reflects both ancient and modern Persia, which is now known as Iran.
http://aryansland.blogfa.com/8709.aspxhttp://padena.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%87%D8%B1/. This religious symbol was mistakingly adapted by the
Pahlavi dynastyThe Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from the crowning of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925, following the overthrow of Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruler of the Qajar dynasty, already weakened by Soviet and British occupation....
to represent the Iranian nation. The etymology of Faravahar is the
Middle PersianMiddle Persian is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as Western Iranian language...
root
/frwr/ (the Pahlavi script of Middle Persian did not represent short vowels), and the word is thus variously pronounced/written
farohar,
frohar,
frawahr,
fravahr and so forth, as there is no agreed upon method of transliterating the Middle Persian word into English. In Dekhoda's dictionary and the 17th century Persian dictionary Burhan Qati', it appears as "furuhar". The
Encyclopedia Iranica renders it as
frawahr (this reflects the Pazend
dibacheh form, corresponding to Book Pahlavi
prʾwhr).
The winged disc has a long history in the art and culture of the
ancient NearNear East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
and
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Historically, the symbol is influenced by the "
winged sunThe winged sun is a symbol associated with divinity, royalty and power in the Ancient Near East...
"
hieroglyphAnatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were once commonly known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the term Luwian hieroglyphs is used in English publications...
appearing on
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
royal seals (
LuwianHieroglyphic Luwian is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs...
SOL SUUS, symbolizing royal power in particular). In Neo-Assyrian times, a human bust is added to the disk, the "feather-robed archer" interpreted as symbolizing
AshurAššur was the head of the Assyrian pantheon. His origins are unknown but he is one of the Mesopotamian city gods, namely of the city Assur , once the capital of the Old Assyrian kingdom. It might therefore be that he was a personification of the city itself...
.
While the symbol is currently thought to represent a
FravashiA fravashi is the guardian spirit mentioned in the Avesta of an individual, who sends out the urvan into the material world to fight the battle of good versus evil...
(
c. a guardian angel) and from which it derives its name (see below), what it represented in the minds of those who adapted it from earlier
MesopotamiaMesopotamia "land between the rivers" is a name for the Tigris–Euphrates region in the eastern Mediterranean, largely corresponding to Iraq, as well as northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khūzestān Province of southwestern...
n and
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian reliefs is unclear. Because the symbol first appears on royal inscriptions, it is also thought to represent the 'Divine Royal Glory' (
khvarenah' or ' is an Avestan language word for a Zoroastrian concept literally denoting "glory" or "splendour" but understood as a divine mystical force or power projected upon and aiding the appointed. The neuter noun thus also connotes " royal glory," reflecting the perceived divine empowerment of kings...
), or the
FravashiA fravashi is the guardian spirit mentioned in the Avesta of an individual, who sends out the urvan into the material world to fight the battle of good versus evil...
of the king, or represented the
divine mandateThe divine right of kings is a political and religious doctrine of royal absolutism. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God. The king is thus not subject to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or any other estate...
that was the foundation of a king's authority.
This relationship between the name of the symbol and the class of divine entities it represents, reflects the current belief that the symbol represents a
Fravashi. However, there is no physical description of the
Fravashis in the
AvestaThe Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.-Etymology:The etymology of the term Avesta itself is uncertain, but a derivation from Middle Persian meaning "praise", is a frequently noted possibility.-Age of the texts:The texts of the...
, the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, and in Avestan the entities are grammatically feminine.
In present-day Zoroastrianism, the
faravahar is said to be a reminder of one's purpose in life, which is to live in such a way that the soul progresses towards
frasho-kereti, or union with
Ahura MazdaAhura Mazda is the Avestan language name for a divinity exalted by Zoroaster as the one uncreated Creator.The Zoroastrian faith is described by its adherents as Mazdayasna, the worship of Mazda. In the Avesta, "Ahura Mazda is the highest object of worship", the first and most frequently invoked...
, the supreme divinity in Zoroastrianism. Although there are a number of interpretations of the individual elements of the symbol, none of them are older than the 20th century.
Further Reading
- Foruhar entry in Dehkhoda's dictionary.
- Mary Boyce, Fravashi in Encyclopedia Iranica.