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ABSTRACT
Due to three seasons of archaeological excavations at Qalʿe-ye Dokhtar of Bazeh Hur in north-eastern Iran, remains of a fire temple were discovered shedding significant light on the ritual architecture of Iran during late antiquity. The Qalʿe-ye Dokhtar temple resembling the western Sasanian fire temples is composed of a main chahartaq which was surrounded by a circumambulatory. This fire temple was made out of bricks and replaced an architectural complex that had been probably established in the Parthian period. The Sasanian fire temple continued to exist until the early Islamic period and was eventually destroyed due to a massive earthquake in the ninth and tenth centuries. Some specific features that were found within the fire temple including fire altars, a mould for producing altars, middle Persian inscriptions, and architectural decorations as well as its location in the ancient province of Pušt tempt us to consider it as the most likely nomination for Ādur Burzēn-Mihr.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Behrouz Omrani (Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, ICHTTO), Rouhollah Shirazi and Siamak Sarlak (Iranian Centre for Archaeological Research), Gholamhossein Karimi Doustan, Hassan Karimian, and Kamalaldin Niknami (Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran), and Yannick Lintz (The Islamic Art Department in the Louvre Museum) for their official and financial support. In particular, I am also very grateful to Rocco Rante, the director of the Louvre archaeological mission because of his kind collaboration during the 2018 season of the project not only for financial support, but in a global scientific way The honest and hardworking members of the mission consisted of Mostanser Gholinezhad, Habib Emadi, Alireza Shahmohammadpour, Danilo Rosati, Ali Sadrarei, Negin Tabatabaei, Mahmoud Toghraei, Amir Hashamdar, Fathollah Niazi, Hamed Sayyad Shahri, Hossein Davoudi, Mehdi Ghorbani and Maria Daghmehchi deserve my sincere appreciation for their contribution to excavate and conservation of the archaeological site of Bazeh Hur during two seasons 2018–2019. I would also like to show my gratitude to Sohrab Pournazeri, my artist friend, for his kind support and Parvaneh Pourshariati for insightful comments and her support to make us able to fulfil further seasons. The paper also benefited from the reviews of two anonymous reviewers who provided extremely helpful comments on early drafts of this paper. None of the above should be held responsible for any (mis)use to which I might have put their valuable advice.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris, 353–4; Diez, Islamische Baukunst in Churasan, 39; Herzfeld, “Damascus: Studies in Architecture,” 33; Godard, “Les monuments du feu,” 53–8; Wilber, “The Ruins at Rabat-i-Safid”; Schippmann, Die iranischen Feuerheiligtumer, 13–21; Huff, “BAZA-KUR”; Kleiss, “Kuppel- und Rundbauten,” 151–3; Labbaf-Khaniki, “Sima-ye Mirath-e Farhangi-ye Khorāsān,” 42–3; Pirnia, Sabk Shenasi-ye Me’mari-ye Irani, 108; Hozhabri, “The Evolution of Religious Architecture”; Labbaf-Khaniki, “Excavations at Bazeh-Hur in North-Eastern Iran”; Ibid., “Trial Trenching and Discovery of a Columned Building in Bazeh-Hur (North-East Iran)”.
2 Labbaf-Khaniki, “Excavations at Bazeh-Hur in North-Eastern Iran,” 257–8; Labbaf-Khaniki, “Trial Trenching and Discovery of a Columned Building in Bazeh-Hur (North-East Iran),” 222–5.
3 Labbaf-Khaniki, “Excavations at Bazeh-Hur in North-Eastern Iran: A Preliminary Report,” 256–7.
4 Hallier, “Ribat-i Sefid (Khorāsān),” 155–6.
5 This operation was accomplished under RICHT's permission accompanied by Habib Emadi and Mostanser Gholinezhad supported financially by the present author.
6 This phase of excavation was supported financially by the Louvre Museum and Dr Rocco Rante who directed the French team. In addition to the members mentioned above, the specialists Danilo Rosati, Maria Daghmehchi, Negin Tabatabaei, and Ali Sadraei joined the team.
7 2019 season was carried out under the present author's direction funded by Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) under proposal no. 98004253 and was partially supported with a donation made by Sohrab Pournazeri.
8 Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris, 354.
9 According to Tabari, Hatra was conquered by Shapur I due to betraying Nadirah, the daughter of king Zayzan, her father. Nadirah after falling in Shapur love, intoxicated her father and the guards of the city gate and learn Shapur how to break the spell on which the right of ownership of the city depended. Ultimately, Shapur I captured and destroyed Hatra, killed the king, and married Nadirah. One night Nadirah could not sleep, complained that her bed is too rough for her. Shapur found that a myrtle leaf stuck in her skin and irritating her. Marvelling at her softness, Shapur I asked her how her father asked her, and she told him how well he treated her. Shapur I understand that Nadirah ingratitude towards his father, and commanded to tie her to a galloping horse. Nadirah's body was ripped (Tabari, Tarikh-e Tabari, 591–2). According to an elderly man from Bazeh Hur, any part of the king's daughter flew into different places of the region after ripping and that's why each of valleys of Bazeh Hur named after her limbs.
10 Afzal al-Molk, Safarname-ye Khorasan va Kerman, 130.
11 Herzfeld, “Damascus: Studies in Architecture,” 33.
12 The comparable structure and masonry of the chahartaq with the phase III of the Qalʿe-ye Dokhtar complex suggests that the chahartaq was not constructed before 5th century AD. For more details of the phase II see below.
13 Wilber, “The Ruins at Rabāt-i-Safid,” 27–8.
14 Hallier, “Ribat-i Sefid (Khorāsān),” 148 ff.
15 Ibid., 153–6.
16 Ibid., 164–5.
17 Bazeh Hur (Khorasan), Inventaire des Monuments Historiques Immobiliers, No. du monument 39, Ministry of Culture and Art, Imperial Government of Iran. The dossier is held now in the documentation centre and library of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Tehran.
18 See Labbaf-Khaniki, “Excavations at Bazeh-Hur in North-Eastern Iran,” 255–6 and literature.
19 Hallier has mentioned these diggings and the remains of a column and some pieces of stucco which were exposed because of the illegal excavations (see footnote 14).
20 The unearthed rooms have been labelled according to the discovering sequence. The letter R is an abbreviation for Room. Likewise, other letters represent the features as: W = Wall; F = Floor; D = Doorway; S = Stairs; P = Platform; f = feature.
21 Rahbar, Découverte d'un monument d'époque sassanide à Bandian, Dargaz (Nord Khorassan). Fouilles 1994 et 1995," Pl. VI.
22 Javeri, “Atashkade-ye Mohavate-ye Vigol va Haraskan,” 87.
23 Kaim and Hashemi, “Khone-Ye Div,” 609; Kaim et al., “Khone-ye Div,” .
24 Kaim and Hashemi, ”Khone-Ye Div,” 610.
25 Another narrower doorway is probably located out of the trench limitation and could be explained according to the symmetrical specifications with the doorway D0101.
26 Rahbar, “Découverte d'un monument d'époque sassanide à Bandian, Dargaz (Nord Khorassan). Fouilles 1994 et 1995,” 218, . Mehdi Rahbar during a personal conversation with the present author confirmed that the potholes were serving as the scaffolding. Rajabali Labbaf-Khaniki also identified some similar features in the mediaeval mosque of Zuzan in Khorasan and believes the same functions for them (personal conversation, 2020).
27 Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 59.
28 The NW arc is 2.36 m, NE 1.88 m, SE 2.32 m, and SW 1.95 m deep.
29 Javeri, “Atashkade-ye Mohavate-ye Vigol va Haraskan,” 87.
30 Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 63, Figure 14.
31 cf. the installations of the Tureng Tepe fire chamber in Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 67–8, Planches 125–6 and cited works offering comparable testimonies.
32 Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 65.
33 Moradi and Keall, “The Sasanian Fire Temple of Gach Dawar in Western Iran,” 31 and references. Before them, Boucharlat and Lecomte had cautiously proposed this hypothesis referring to the Mary Boyce's description of the modern fire chamber of Dar-I Mihr Daulat Khaneh of Kerman (Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 67).
34 Alram, “II. Numismatischer Teil / Etude Numismatique: II.A. Ardashir I. (nach 205/206 bzw. 224-240),” 117 ff.
35 Negro Ponzi, “Some Sasanian Moulds”, 87, figs. 69 and 129, No. 24.
36 For details of the Gach Dawar's trough and more information about the function of ashes from sacred fire see Moradi and Keall, “The Sasanian Fire Temple of Gach Dawar in Western Iran,” 31–2.
37 Azarnoush, The Sasanian Manor House at Hājīābād, Iran, 167ff.
38 Overlaet, “And Man Created Gods?,” 322.
39 Gaibov and Košelenko, “Temples of Fire on the Territory of the Southern Turkmenistan,” 162.
40 Ibid.
41 Pilipko, “Excavations of Staraia Nisa,” 107.
42 Koshelenko, Rodina parfian, 54–6.
43 Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 59.
44 Rahbar, “The Discovery of a Sasanian Period Fire Temple at Bandiyān, Dargaz”.
45 Kaim, “Un temple du feu sassanide découverte à Mele Hairam (Turkménistan meridional)”.
46 Gaibov and Košelenko, “Temples of Fire on the Territory of the Southern Turkmenistan,” 164–6.
47 Rahbar, “Kakhi ke be Kargah-haye Sanati Tabdil Shod”.
48 Sprengling, Third Century Iran: Sapor and Kartir, 17–8.
49 Shāyist Nāshāyist, 146–9.
50 Boyce, “Ātaškada,” 9.
51 Boyce, Zoroastrians, their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 5.
52 Boyce, “Ātaš,” 5.
53 Naumann, Die Ruinen von Tacht-e Suleiman und Zendan-e Suleiman und Umbegung.
54 Moradi and Keall, “The Sasanian Fire Temple of Gach Dawar in Western Iran”.
55 Khosravi, “Shavahedi Tazeh az Tadfin-e Dore-ye Sasani dar Atashkade-ye Palang Gerd-e Kermanshah,” 127–8; Khosravi et al., “The Function of Gypsum Bases in Sasanid Fire Temples," Pl. 4a.
56 Rezvani and Mousavi, “Shiyān”.
57 Boucharlat and Lecomte, Fouilles de Tureng Tepe sous la Direction de Jean Deshayes, 54–9.
58 Rahbar, “The Discovery of a Sasanian Period Fire Temple at Bandiyān, Dargaz”.
59 Kaim, “Un temple du feu sassanide découverte à Mele Hairam (Turkménistan meridional)”.
60 Gaibov and Košelenko, “Temples of Fire on the Territory of the Southern Turkmenistan,” 164–6.
61 See six last footnotes.
62 This resemblance can be find particularly between sitting rams of Qalʿe-ye Dokhtar and those which found from Kish (Moorey, Kish Excavations 1923–1933, Fig. L.K 1400) and Qala Gowri (Hasanpour, “Qala Gowri-e Seimareh dar Dovomin Fasl as Kavosh-e Nejatbakhsi,” Figs. 6:7,8). There are many other instances from Qalʿe-ye Dokhtar which show close similarity in form and order with the western stuccoes. The present author discussed this matter in detail (Labbaf-Khaniki, “The Sasanian Stuccoes of North-eastern Iran: Khorasanian Imagery in Late Antiquity”).
63 Canepa, “Topographies of Power”.
64 Including both inscriptions (i.e. SKZ and KNR) and middle Persian manuscripts (i.e. Letter of Tansar and Book of the deeds of Ardašīr).
65 Sprengling, Third Century Iran: Sapor and Kartir, 51.
66 Boyce, “Ādur Burzēn-Mihr,” 473.
67 Huff, “Takht-i Suleiman: Sasanian Fire Sanctuary and Mongolian Palace,” 464.
68 See Jackson, “The Location of the Farnbāg Fire, the Most Ancient of the Zoroastrian Fires”.
69 Farnbagh Dadagi, Bundahish, 91, 185 (footnotes 8 and 9).
70 Ibid., 72.
71 Vichitakiha-I Zatsparam, 42.
72 The meaning of Pušt has been a matter of debate and some scholars referencing to the translations of Bundahišn (Zand-Ākāsīh Iranian or Greater Bundahišn, 99) and Zādspram (Gignoux and Tafazzoli, “Anthologie de Zādspram,” 54–5) have translated this word to “ridge”. Sadeghi convincingly concluded that the latter translation in Bundahišn is incorrect for two reasons: (1) There is no mountain in the Arabic and Persian sources that was introduced as Pušt-e Goštāspān; (2) It is not common in Bundahišn that identifies the place of a mountain at the place of another mountain. About the Zādspram's words, he has quoted from Vichitakiha-i Zatsparam edited by Ankelsaria as: “Ādur Burzēn Mihr is located in the Rivand Mountain, in Pušt” and quoted from Ankelsaria that “The word of Wištāspān does never appear after Pušt in the different versions of Zātsparam” (Vichitakiha-I Zatsparam, 42). These words are not also recorded in the version that was edited by Gignoux and Tafazzoli and they inserted their own impression inside parentheses (Gignoux and Tafazzoli, “Anthologie de Zādspram,” 213) comparing with the mistranslated Bundahišn's account (Sadeghi, “Mahal-e Azar Burzin Mihr,” 7–8). According to the Pahlavi dictionary, the word “Pušt” means “back”, “support”, and “protection” (MacKenzie, A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary, 69). In a similar way, Nyberg translated "Pušt" into "back" and has known "protection" as the translation of "Puštān" (Nyberg, p. 163). Therefore, Pušt-e Goštāspān means the Pušt (as a province) of Goštāsp rather than the mountain or ridge of Goštāsp. Incidentally, it is a long tradition in Iran that attributes a city or province to the person who has been identified as a part of that region's identity like Mashhad al-Reza, Kalat-e Nader, Torbat-e Heydariyeh, and Shush-e Danial.
73 Sadeghi, “Mahal-e Azar Burzin Mihr,” 6–9 and references.
74 Asadi Tusi, Loqat-e Fors, 141.
75 Monchi-Zadeh, Topographisch-historische Studien zum iranischen Nationalepos, 213.
76 Maqdisi, Ahsan al-Taqasim fi Maʻrefat Al-Aqalim, 436.
77 The Bust province probably stretched east to the vicinity of Sang Bast village. According to Rajabali Labbaf-Khaniki, the road to the Bust province branched off the Silk Road at the location of Sang Bast and there was a stone that indicated the Bust road. Therefore, Sang Bast was originally pronounced Sang-e Bust meaning the stone that indicates the route to the Bust province. Some comparable toponyms like Sang-e Kalidar (on the starting point of the path to the Kalidar village, the Sabzevar county) support this hypothesis (R. Labbaf-Khaniki, personal communication).
78 Hakem-e Neyshabouri, Tarikh-e Neyshabour, 202–7.
79 Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation, 39.
80 Nasrollahzadeh, “Gozareshi az Katibeh-haye Qalʿe-ye Dokhtar-e Bazeh Hur”.
81 Boyce, “Zoroastrianism,” 172. According to the historical accounts, Islam's spread in the cities of Khorasan and the countryside around Nishapur intensified during the 9th and the 10th centuries due to the efforts of Muslim missionaries and the economic and social benefits offered by Muslim authorities (Choksy, Conflict and Cooperation, 82–3, 92).
82 Bahar, Pajuheshi dar Asatir-e Iran, 116.
83 For more information about the symbols of Mithra see Grenet, “Mithra II.”.
84 The most probable chahartaq which had been already suggested as the temple of Ādur Burzēn-Mihr was the chahartaq of Khone-ye Div in Rēwand of Sabzevar (Jackson, From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam, 211–7; Hashemi Zarjabad et al., “Chahartaqi-e Khane-ye Div, Atashkade-ei Noyafteh az Dore-ye Sasani,” 80). Intensive archaeological excavations of the Irano-Polish team at this chahartaq revealed nothing confirming the function of the building as a principal fire temple attributable to Ādur Burzēn-Mihr (Kaim and Hashemi, “Khone-Ye Div”; Kaim et al., “Khone-ye Div”). On the other hand, Ali Ashraf Sadeghi citing the middle Persian manuscripts and medieval resources inferred that the location of Ādur Burzēn-Mihr is someplace other than the Rēwand of Sabzevar (Sadeghi, “Mahal-e Azar Burzin Mihr,” 15).