یک پیغام کوتاه

بعضی اوقات پیغام دادن هم خیلی سخته، طفلک قاصدکها که همه عمرپیغام رد و بدل میکنند

I couldn't write what I wanted you to know! But the dance of fluffy white seeds of dandelions will be the courier of my message to you.

Spring is upon us

The combination of snow and yellow rusty leaves next to fresh, green growth, representing past, present and future. It is one of the simplest forms of contradiction that I've photographed.

On Thursday 20th March (2008) at 05:48:19am Britain will enter spring. This is the exact moment of the arrival of Nuroz (a variety of spelling for this word is used: norooz, noruz, norouz or nowrooz). Nuroz (the Persian New Year) celebration is about being in harmony with nature; a festivity that does not nurture a particular religion, ideology, background or belief. Another factor that adds to the potentially unifying feature of Nuroz is the fact that it arrives simultaneously in the entire northern hemisphere.

Nuroz has been traditionally celebrated as the triumph of light over darkness and as a new beginning in synchronization with nature. In preparation for its arrival and as a sign of regeneration:
- houses get makeovers and are cleaned thoroughly (something similar to spring cleaning practice)
- thoughts and appearances are reinvented [old grudges are forgetting about, people normally wear new clothes, too (the former is usually less conformed to than the latter!)]
- broken links in relationships are mended; family and friends make time for each other.

Outside Iran (excluding countries which celebrate Nuroz such as Afghanistan) Nuroz arrives whilst jobs, schools and other day-to-day commitments carry on as normal .

This year, however, Nuroz coincides with the Easter break. This makes it easier to focus on celebrating the arrival of spring; I cannot wait!

Whether you celebrate Nuroz or not, have a fantastic spring!

[Follow the link below to work out the exact moment of arrival of spring in your area: http://mamali.soheyli.com/Nowrooz]

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It's called Persian Gulf

(I came across this stone in Tenerife)

The persistence of some of the international media for referring to the Persian Gulf as the Gulf demonstrates the fact that they don't know or don't want to use the correct, historical name of the Persian Gulf. But this contagious “ignorance” (let’s just call it “ignorance”, for now) has recently moved up a level.

If the first level of the “ignorance” was to delete the word Persian from the Persian Gulf, the second level is to replace it with another word! This is the phase that we are now in. Seeing a recent petition [http://www.petitiononline.com/sos02082/petition.html] protesting against the wrong name for the Persian Gulf that was used by a major virtual globe programme motivated me to write a few lines.

I am very surprised that we even need a petition for requesting a mistake to be corrected! Correcting the wrong data entry should not need petitions. Mistakes of this nature should have not occurred in the first place. If the wrong data is entered it falls on people responsible for maintaining the database to rectify the error as a matter of urgency. The level of staff competencies and the organisation’s safety nets for prevention of such wrong doings in future also needs to be assessed by the independent external bodies.

Considering misrepresenting of the name of the Persian Gulf has now reached an epidemic, a “conspiracy” theory is also lurking in the background (this might even suggest the exchange of money for the favour of falsifying data). At the moment I would like to accept the “ignorance” theory and to think that using the wrong name for the Persian Gulf was just a mistake that will be corrected soon.

Some of you might think that this is only a trivial matter and specific to people with ties with Iran. In this case, I would like to ask what your reaction would be if you refer to a world map only to discover that the Irish Sea is called the English Sea and the Gulf of Mexico is the Gulf of USA!

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Shahnameh Ferdowsi

The picture (Legend = اسطوره, Originally uploaded by Shahireh) shows one of the 19th century stained glass windows of St Ann's church, Manchester, UK.

This image reminds me of Sohrab, one of the legendary figures of Shahnameh (translated as The Book of Kings). Shahnameh is a Persian epic written by Abu'l-Qasem Ferdowsi in the 10th century. It is one of the world-famous literary masterpieces and is translated in many languages. Many original copies of the book exist in libraries throughout the world; yet, it remains unknown to most of the English readers!

According to Charles Melville (2007) Shahnameh holds the record of the longest poem written by one author (it contains 50,000 verses). The same source also indicates that the first illustrated version of the book dates back to 1300. The illustrated versions contain the miniature paintings some of which are masterpieces in their own rights.

Shahnama Project aims to produce an electronic collection of painting of shahnameh manuscripts and to promote the study of shahnameh (what took them so long?). More can be read about Shahnama Project by visiting their site:

http://shahnama.caret.cam.ac.uk/shahnama/faces/text/about-project.html

[I've named Shahnama Project as I am aware of their work; please feel free to add other sources in the comment section.]

Reference:

Charles Melville (2007) Shahnama Project

http://shahnama.caret.cam.ac.uk/shahnama/faces/text/about-shahnama.html

Accessed on 22 Feb 2008

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