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Aso Ali

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Oct 3, 1997, 3:00:00 AM10/3/97

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<H2> QALEH-I YAZDIGIRD- CULTURAL
TREASURE OF THE KURDISH PAST:
</h2>

by Mehrdad Izady, Harvard University

In the mid- 1 960s the Royal Ontario Museum of
Toronto, under the supervision of archaeologist
E.J.Keall, carried out excavations on the site of
Qaleh-i Yazdigird and found a vast and artistic
landmark complex of palaces abandoned by the
end of the Parthian era (AD 226). Qaleh-i Yazdigird
is situated on a superbly formed high tableland at
the edge of the Zagros Mountains north of the
town of Sarpuli Zohab in southern Kurdistan.
From these heights it commands the famous Silk
Road. The wealth of plaster decoration and
statuary on the site has always been used by local
peasants as a ready source of gypsum for
construction. Unfortunately, this practice has
destroyed untold numbers of cultural and
historical treasures of the Kurdish past.

Keall's excavations unearthed a fortress town
with palaces, fortifications, temples and the like,
all richly decorated. The highly sophisticated
artwork at Qaleh-i Yazdigird depicts a wealth of
themes representing artistic traditions of the East
(stylized animal and floral designs) and West
(life-like humans and animals). Among these
voluminous decorations was found the earliest
evidence for theatrical plays in Kurdistan, as
preserved in scenes of acting men, women and
pans, some wearing face masks. The finds are so
impressive as to belie the traditionally held view
of the late Parthian era as a time of deterioration.

Qaleh-i Yazdigird also held coins of a ruler
described by numismatists, who examined
specimens of his coinage, as the "unknown king".
He issued coins used exclusively and extensively
in the Kurdish highlands around the middle of the
2nd century AD. Keall states: "Whether the
'unknown king' was the one who built and ruled
from the magnificent palaces of Qaleh-i Zazdigird,
the independent minting of coins reflects the
autonomy claimed by a powerful lord." (Keall,
1983:44). Yet, despite these achievements, Keall
consistently refers to the king as the "robber
baron."

In fact, it is not at all difficult to tentatively
identify Keall's "robber baron" and the
numismatists' "unknown king" in history. He
could well have been the father or grandfather of
the mighty ruler Haftan Bukht of the sacred and
powerful Kurdish kingdom of Kirm (or Kram) that
covered southern Kurdistan, the area of modern
Kirmanshah and Awraman. According to
historical accounts, Haftan-Bukht's twoyear
defense of his domain and his Kurdish allied
kingdoms nearly cost the invading Ardashir I,
founder of the Sasanian Persian
cultural treasure
empire, his life. Haftan-Bukht installed viceroys,
many of them his own sons, to rule the myriad of
mountain provinces and carry his writ, presumably
continuing the same administrative structure of
the "unknown king" whose coinage carried the
economy of the Kurdish mountains. Surviving
statuary may well provide an image of this as yet
nameless Kurdish king. In addition to his profile
which appears on his coinage, a naturalistic
frontal depiction is often repeated in the wall
decorations at Qaleh-i Yazdigird.

There is no exact date for the sack and
abandonment of the Qaleh-i Zazdigird complex.
But it is not unreasonable to assume that it too fell
victim to Ardashir's wrath. In his battle chronicle,
the Karnamak, Ardashir boasts of the death and
destruction he wrought on the Kurds, their cities
and their sacred places of worship in the course of
AD 224-226 (Karnamak-i Artakhsher-i Papakan,
v-xi) It is fascinating that in his Karnamak
chronicle the first reference to the ethnic term
"Kurd" appears in a preIslamic Persian source. In
fact, the term 'Kurd' is used repeatedly to identify
the inhabitants of the Zagros, including Mada
(Media, ie, region of Hamadan), Sanak (region of
Sahna), Shahrazor (region of Sulaymania),
Barchan (region of Barzan), Hakar (region of
Hakkari), Mukran (region of Mahabad) and most
importantly Kram, the region of Kirmanshah and
therefore Qaleh-i Yazdigird. (These are actual
place names which appear in the text.)

Ethnic Kurds are thus identified as the
inhabitants of the region of Qaleh-i Yazdigird at
the time of its destruction in this chronicle of the
man who was in all likelihood its destroyer.
Consequently, there is no doubt that it is the
artistic heritage of these same ethnic Kurds that
has been unearthed at Qaleh-i Yazdigird.
Interestingly a representation of a peculiar
pointed hat (apparently made of felt) is indentical
in its configuration to a modern Yezidi felt hat now
on display in the Kurdish Museum in New York.

The artistic repertoire of Qaleh-i Yazdigird is
crucial for the new light it sheds on the origins of
some of the most famous Persian Sasanian motifs.
For example, a senmurv griffin appearing on its
plaster wall decorations is almost identical to that
executed at the grottos of Taq Bustan near
Kirmanshah four centuries later by order of
Chosroes II Aperves, a descendant of Ardasher.
Yet the griffin motif has been considered a
hallmark of Persian Sasanian art. The Keall
excavation of Oaleh-i
Yazdigird reveals that this motif was in fact
borrowed from the Kurdish artistic repertoire,
possibly a representation of ancient Anzu
(predecessor of the Yezidi bird-angel, Anzal).
Furthermore, the square-shaped column capitals
at this Kurdish site also anticipate those of the
Sasanians, which came later.

Despite this formidable evidence of highly
sophisticated art and culture, an organized state
apparatus issuing currenices for its integrated
economy within the folds of the Zagros - much of
which is paradoxically revealed thanks to Keall's
own excavations - Keall deliberately and
consistently refers to the illustrious Kurdish
statesman and ruler of Qaleh-i Yazdigird as a
"robber baron". Take this statement, for example:
"This stronghold may well have been the luxurious
mountain retreat of a robber baron bent on
plundering or exacting booty from caravans
travelling the Silk Road." Yet he never offers a
single shred of archaeological or historical
evidence to prove that his unknown monarch was
a bandit. In fact, the complexity and sophistication
of his own findings is the best evidence to refute
the archaeologist's characterisation. It is tempting
to conclude that this defamatory label for the king
may well derive from Keall's assumption that the
lord of Qaleh-i Yazdigird was a Kurd and therefore,
as a Kurd, must have been a robber or a predator.
This is not a farfetched hypothesis considering
that as recently as 15 years ago 'Kurd' was defined
by the Oxford Standard Dictionary of the English
Language as "one of a tall, pastoral and predatory
people" until it was revised thanks to the efforts of
the founder of the Kurdish Library in New York.

When in history has a highway robber leading
a band of brigands had the time and the talent to
gather sophisticated town planners, skilled
architects and artists to create a entire city (in
which local and Greek theatrical plays were
performed), establish an integrated administration
over a vast region for which his own treasury
minted coins as the primary currency? Were not
such "robber barons" called kings and emperors
in the past? Why then is this ancient Kurd, this
lover of art, this able administrator, this master
builder and town planner defamed and
diminished?

Unfortunatly, Keall's facile conclusion simply
follows the long trail of researchers who continue
to obscure and to derogate highly original
contributions of the now stateless Kurds. This
must be criticised as
an insufferable affront to the cultural
heritage of this ancient nation.

Months ago, writing in this same journal,
on the topic of the discoveries at Godin Tapa
(130 miles east of Yaleh-i Yazdigird), I made
reference to the chronic tendeney of
archaeologists to ascribe the source of any
and all things of importance that are found in
the Zagros to outside cultures, even when
none were available. The character and
contribution of the patron-builder of Qaleh-i
Yazdigird is simply one more example of this
inexcusable ignorance of scholars and
scientists who know virtually nothing of the
people from whose earth they excavate

these archaeological treasures. Consequently,
the Kurds to this day are non-people, even a
race of ancient criminals, to those who
excavate the rich archaeological sites of
Kurdistan. Ironically, it is these digs that will
provide irrefutable proof that in Kurdistan
originated many of the achievments for
which ancient, traditionally recognised
cultures outside the mountains have been
given, or have taken credit.

Casual characterisations might be
amusing were they not trivializing the artistic
heritage and thus the history of the Kurdish
nation. They are more disconcerting coming
from the archaeologist responsible for
unearthing ground-breaking evidenee
indicating that the arts of early Kurds
significantly influenced the later and much
heralded Sasanian Persian school of art.

Oaleh-i Yazdigird remains a masterpiece
of classical Kurdish urban planning and
monumental architecture, a treasure trove of
art, a history book waiting to be read
properly, courtesy of the cultured ancestors
of the Kurds, the "robber barons".

From Kurdish Life , No 6, 1993

E. J. Keall 'A Persian castle on the silk

roads' in Silk roads, China ships, J
Vollmer and E J Keall et al, Toronto, Royal
Ontario Museum, 1983
</H2>

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