Editing Simurgh (section)

==Mythology==
[[File:Sassanid silver plate by Nickmard Khoey.jpg|left|thumb|[[Sassanian]] silver plate of a simurgh (Sēnmurw), 7th or 8th century CE]]

[[File:Simurgh platter. From Iran. Samanids dynasty. 9th-10th century CE. Islamic Art Museum (Museum für Islamische Kunst), Berlin (parallax).jpg|left|thumb|[[Samanid dynasty|Samanian]] Simurgh platter" (9th-10th century). Simurgh as a word in [[Farsi|Persian]] is a [[double entendre]] (or [[Īhām]]), and can be interpreted as 30 birds. This plate depicts that interpretation. [[Attar of Nishapur]] also mentions this interpretation in his poetic book of [[Conference of the Birds]]]].

[[File:Delegate with Simurgh design on his dress in the Afrasiab murals 648-651 CE.jpg|thumb|left|Ambassador with Simurgh design on his dress in the [[Afrasiab murals]], 648–651 CE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Compareti (University of California, Berkeley) |first1=Matteo |title=Ancient Iranian Decorative Textiles |journal=The Silk Road |date=2015 |volume=13 |page=38 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291135843}}</ref>]]

===Form and function===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2021}}
The Simurgh is depicted in [[Iranian art]] as a winged creature in the shape of a bird, gigantic enough to carry off an elephant or a whale. It appears as a peacock with the head of a dog and the claws of a lion – sometimes, however, also with a human face. The Simurgh is inherently benevolent.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=TÜFEKÇİ |first=ALİ |date=2020-12-17 |title=Journey in search of truth: Metaphorical story of Simurgh, sovereign of birds |url=https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/journey-in-search-of-truth-metaphorical-story-of-simurgh-sovereign-of-birds/news |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=Daily Sabah |language=en-US}}</ref> Being part mammal, they suckle their young.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Nair |first=Nitten |date=2022-09-09 |title=Simurgh : The Giant Bird |url=https://mythlok.com/simurgh/ |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=Mythlok |language=en-US}}</ref> The Simurgh has an enmity towards snakes, and its natural habitat is a place with plenty of water.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Its feathers are said to be the colour of copper in some versions, and though it was originally described as being a dog-bird, later it was shown with either the head of a man or a dog (Bearded vultures are variably orange or rust of plumage on their head, breast, and leg feathers, but this is thought to be cosmetic. This colouration comes from dust-bathing or rubbing iron-rich mud on its body).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

"''Si-''", the first element in the name, has been connected in [[folk etymology]] to Modern Persian ''si'' ("thirty"). Although this prefix is not historically related to the origin of the name ''simurgh'', "thirty" has nonetheless been the basis for legends incorporating that number – for instance, that the simurgh was as large as thirty birds or had thirty colours (''siræng''). Other suggested etymologies include Pahlavi ''sin murgh'' ("eagle bird") and Avestan ''saeno merego'' ("eagle").<ref name=":0" />

Iranian legends consider the bird so old that it had seen the destruction of the world three times over. The simurgh learned so much by living so long that it is thought to possess the knowledge of all the ages. In one legend, the simurgh was said to live 1,700 years before plunging itself into flames (much like the [[phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]]).<ref name=":0" />

The simurgh was considered to purify the land and waters and hence bestow fertility. The creature represented the union between the Earth and the sky, serving as mediator and messenger between the two. The simurgh roosted in [[Gaokerena]], the [[Haoma|Hōm]] (Avestan: Haoma) Tree of Life, which stands in the middle of the world sea ([[Vourukasha]]). The plant is potent medicine and is called all-healing, and the seeds of all plants are deposited on it. When the simurgh took flight, the leaves of the tree of life shook, making all the seeds of every plant fall out. These seeds floated around the world on the winds of [[Vayu-Vata]] and the rains of [[Tishtrya]], in cosmology taking root to become every type of plant that ever lived and curing all the illnesses of mankind.

The relationship between the simurgh and Hōm is extremely close. Like the simurgh, Hōm is represented as a bird, a messenger, and the essence of purity that can heal any illness or wound. Hōm – appointed as the first priest – is the essence of divinity, a property it shares with the simurgh. The Hōm is in addition the vehicle of ''farr(ah)'' (MP: ''khwarrah'', Avestan: ''[[khvarenah]]'', ''kavaēm kharēno'') ("divine glory" or "fortune"). ''Farrah'' in turn represents the [[Divine Right of Kings|divine mandate]] that was the foundation of a king's authority.

It appears as a bird resting on the head or shoulder of would-be kings and clerics, indicating [[Ahura Mazda|Ormuzd's]] acceptance of that individual as his divine representative on Earth. For the commoner, [[Bahrām|Bahram]] wraps fortune/glory "around the house of the worshipper, for wealth in cattle, like the great bird Saena, and as the watery clouds cover the great mountains" (''[[Yasht]]'' 14.41, cf. the rains of Tishtrya above). Like the simurgh, ''farrah'' is also associated with the waters of ''Vourukasha'' (''Yasht'' 19.51, 56–57). In Yašt 12.17 Simorgh's (Saēna's) tree stands in the middle of the sea Vourukaša, it has good and potent medicine and is called all-healing, and the seeds of all plants are deposited on it.

[[File:SchoolOfTabriz3.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Zal and the Simurgh on the [[Mount Qaf]]]]

===In the ''Shahnameh''===
The simurgh made its most famous appearance in [[Ferdowsi]]'s epic ''[[Shahnameh]]'' (Book of Kings), where its involvement with Prince [[Zal]] is described. According to the ''Shahnameh'', [[Zal]], the son of [[Saam]], was born albino. When Saam saw his albino son, he assumed that the child was the spawn of devils, and abandoned the infant on the mountain ''[[Hara Berezaiti|Alborz]]''.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Flights of Imagination: How Birds Have Been Reinvented As Mythical Creatures Around The World — Object Lessons Space |url=https://objectlessons.space/Flights-of-Imagination-How-Birds-Have-Been-Reinvented-As-Mythical |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=objectlessons.space |language=en}}</ref>

The child's cries were heard by the tender-hearted simurgh, who lived atop this peak, and she retrieved the child and raised him as her own. Zal was taught much wisdom from the loving simurgh, who has all knowledge, but the time came when he grew into a man and yearned to rejoin the world of men. Though the simurgh was terribly saddened, she gave him three golden feathers which he was to burn if he ever needed her assistance.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Tahmasp-Shahnamah-fol63v-LTS1995 2 46alt.jpg|thumb|Simurgh returning to nest to Zal and its chicks (detail).<br>
{{right|{{small|—"Zal is Sighted by a Caravan" (''[[Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp|Tahmasp Shahnamah]]'', fol. 62v), Sackler Gallery LTS1995.2.46}}}}]]

Upon returning to his kingdom, Zal fell in love and married the beautiful [[Rudaba]]. When it came time for their son to be born, the labor was prolonged and terrible; Zal was certain that his wife would die in labour. Rudaba was near death when Zal decided to summon the simurgh. The simurgh appeared and instructed him upon how to perform a [[cesarean section]] thus saving Rudaba and the child, who became one of the greatest Persian heroes, [[Rostam]].

Simurgh also shows up in the story of the [[Seven Trials of Esfandiyar]] in the latter's 5th labor. After killing the wicked enchantress, [[Esfandiyar]] fights a simurgh, and despite the simurgh's many powers, Esfandiyar strikes it in the neck, [[decapitating]] it. The simurgh's offspring then rise to fight Esfandiyar, but they, too, are slain.<ref name=":2" />

===In Persian Sufi poetry===
[[File:An assembly of animals and birds - Johnson Collection (c.1610) - BL J.67.4.jpg|upright|thumb|Simurgh from the works of [[Attar of Nishapur]]]]
In classical and modern Persian literature the simorḡ is frequently mentioned, particularly as a metaphor for God in [[Sufism|Sufi mysticism]].<ref name="Iranica" /> In the 12th century ''[[The Conference of the Birds|Conference of the Birds]]'', Iranian Sufi poet [[Attar Neyshapuri|Farid ud-Din Attar]] wrote of a band of pilgrim birds in search of the simurgh. In the poem, the birds of the world gather to decide who is to be their king, as they have none. The [[hoopoe]], the wisest of them all, suggests that they should find the legendary simorgh, a mythical Persian bird roughly equivalent to the western [[Phoenix (mythology)|phoenix]]. The hoopoe leads the birds, each of whom represent a human fault which prevents man from attaining enlightenment. When the group of thirty birds finally reach the dwelling place of the simorgh, all they find is a lake in which they see their own reflection. This scene employs a pun on the Persian expression for "thirty birds" (''si morgh'').<ref>{{cite book|title=The World of Persian Literary Humanism|author=Hamid Dabashi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQFNfOPAS04C&pg=PA124|page=124|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0674067592}}</ref>

The phrase also appears three times in Rumi's [[Masnavi]], e.g. in Book VI, Story IX: "The nest of the ''sī murğ'' is beyond [[Mount Qaf]]" (as translated by E.H. Whinfield).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whinfield |first1=E.H. |title=Masnavi i Ma'navi |date=2001 |publisher=Omphaloskepsis |location=Ames, Iowa |page=468 |url=https://ia601601.us.archive.org/11/items/MasnaviByRumiEnglishTranslation/rumi_masnavi.pdf |access-date=25 September 2022}}</ref>

Through heavy Persian influence, the simurgh was introduced to the [[Arabic]]-speaking world, where the concept was conflated with other Arabic mythical birds such as the [[ghoghnus]], a bird having some mythical relation with the [[date palm]],<ref>[http://ommolketab.net/english/search/search.php?mid=9401676 Quranic articles; Vegetables in Holy Quran – The date-palm]{{dead link|date=August 2012}}</ref> and further developed as the ''rukh'' (the origin of the English word "[[roc (mythology)|roc]]").
Representations of simurgh were adopted in early [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] art and coinage.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Compareti |first1=Matteo |title=The State of Research on Sasanian Painting |url=https://www.academia.edu/1809995 |journal=Humanities.uci.edu |access-date=4 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

===In Kurdish folklore===
Simurgh is shortened to "sīmir" in the [[Kurdish language]].<ref name="Iranica"/> The scholar [[Kamilla Trever|C. V. Trever]] quotes two Kurdish folktales about the bird.<ref name="Iranica"/> These versions go back to the common stock of Iranian simorḡ stories.<ref name="Iranica"/> In one of the folk tales, a hero rescues the simurgh's offspring by killing a snake that was crawling up the tree to feed upon them. As a reward, the simurgh gives him three of her feathers which the hero can use to call for her help by burning them. Later, the hero uses the feathers, and the simurgh carries him to a distant land. In the other tale, the simurgh carries the hero out of the netherworld; here the simurgh feeds its young with its teats, a trait which agrees with the description of the simurgh in the [[Middle Persian]] book of [[Zadspram]]. In another tale, simurgh feeds the hero on the journey while the hero feeds simurgh with pieces of sheep's fat.