Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Shahnameh

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Ancient Iranian Devices, Insignia & Monograms
نشان های کهن ایرانی

One of the most enigmatic, least studied aspects of #Iranian history & culture

Check this thread out to find out more, and please #retweet & share. You won't find all this info elsewhere!

🧵⤵️⚡️ Images partly from https://...
I might one day turn this into a paper. But for now, let's look at this really cool part of our history! I am so excited!!

What I will call "devices" are abstract signs, seals... that got progressively more complex by end of #Sasanian era. They are also called #Tamga (or tamgha)
Tamga from Turkish. In Middle Persian and modern Persian, the word would be Nishaan or Neshaan ( Ossetian gakk)

These have an amazing and long history. They might have started as signs for cattle, later for clans & families. Were used by people across Eurasia
Read 96 tweets
You might think looking at these paintings that Panjakent society was a society of warriors.

While there were the odd few pieces of arms and armour found there, so far, no stables have been found.

These paintings usually adorned ordinary houses and often told stories.

THREAD
The most famous of these stories is the “Rostam cycle,” the earliest evidence of the famous hero from Ferdowsi’s #Shahnameh. Rostam wears his leopard skin coat and has an elongated skull, a hark back to the Hunnic / Hephthalite kings of Bactria. ~NA @eranudturan ImageImageImageImage
In this story, Rostam sets out to fight the divs (demons), encounters Avlad, has to fight a dragon, duels with the King of the divs, and fights the army of the divs. The whole composition bends around the corners of the room, and was probably copied from a scroll ~NA
Read 18 tweets

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