Stories From the Persian City of Susa
By: Nazila Fathi
March 5, 2020
An Iranian mathematician in Canada emailed me last month to say he was delighted that I had named my children’s book project after his hometown, Susa.
Then, Nasser Heydari, the mathematician, told me about his own project which made me feel more certain about the importance of Susa.
Mr. Heydari said he was working on ancient mathematical tablets which belonged to 1750 BC, the ancient Elam civilization. A team of French archeologists had excavated them in Susa in 1933.
The tablets showed for the first time that those who produced them had a good knowledge of geometry, he wrote.
“As you see, Susa has made a contribution to mathematics too,” he added.
By naming my project Susa Inc, I intended to remind people that Susa, or Shush in Persian, has many stories to tell.
For 6000 years, people have continuously lived in Susa. Archeological findings in Susa unveil the rise and fall of one historic era after another, putting their glory and downfall on full display.
Religious texts have also referred to stories that took place in Susa. Most of the events in the Jewish Book of Easter took place in Susa, or Shushan, as it is referred to in the Book. According to the story, it was in this city that Esther, the Jewish wife of King Ahasuerus, saved the Jews.
Susa remained a thriving trade and religious center until the 13th century when the invading Mongols destroyed it.
The Story in Susa’s Artifacts
Susa was the capital of Elam, the oldest civilization in Iran, which became dominant in the year 2000 BC. Elam was a formidable force up until the Muslim conquest in the 7th century.
French explorers recovered thousands of ceramic pots in Susa many of which are in the Louvre now. The items, handmade and eloquently painted, are a testimony to the artistic and technical achievements of their makers and the society that commissioned them.
You can also find a seven-foot-tall black stone stele, shaped like an index finger and inscribed with the Code of Hammurabi, a well-preserved Babylonian code of law of ancient Mesopotamia dated to about 1754 BC. A limestone column whose top is decorated with two kneeling bulls is also on display.
Thanks to an agreement between the French and Iranian governments, the French had a monopoly to dig in Susa and take whatever they found to France. That agreement ended when Reza Shah came to power in 1925. He negotiated a new deal in 1928 that required the two countries to share the discoveries.
But the 1979 Islamic Revolution put an end to the joint project too.
The Palace of Darius Is in Susa
Susa became the administrative capital of the empire under the rule of Darius, the king of the Persian Empire. Darius introduced law, order and bureaucracy to the vast land under his rule from this city.
To impress visitors and show the grandeur of the empire, he built a magnificent palace in Susa. The construction began at the same time when Darius started to build Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the empire which is better known to most people.
To build the complex in Susa, they dug a deep foundation until they reached rocks, according to the translation of an inscription Darius left near a monumental gate to the complex.
The royal complex redefined Persian art. It reflects the tapestry of cultures, customs and races that created it. Darius used material and skills from near and far. This is how the inscription explains it:
The workers were Babylonians; the cedar timber was brought by the Assyrians to Babylon from a mountain in Lebanon; from Babylon, the Carians and Ionians brought it to Susa. The yaka-timber came from Kandahar (Gandara) and Kerman (Carmania). The gold came from Sardis and from Bakhtrish (Bactria). The precious stone lapis lazuli and carnelian, which were crafted in Susa, came from Suguda (Sogdiana). The precious stone turquoise came from Uvarazmish (Chorasmia) …. Many of the craftsmen were Egyptian.
A Mass Wedding in Susa
The politics of marriage to unite noble families is well-known. But little has been said about the politics of a mass wedding.
In February 324, Alexander of Macedon conquered Persia and overthrew the empire founded by Cyrus. To unify the two civilizations, he forced his officers to marry noble Persian women.
So, he arranged a mass wedding in Susa.
Some 10,000 unions were registered, wrote to Greek author Arrian of Nicomedia who offered the most detailed description of the ceremony. The ceremony was according to Persian customs. The grooms sat on chairs and after they had drinks, the brides walked in and each woman sat down next to her groom.
“They took them by the hand and kissed them,” Nicomedia wrote.
“The king began the ceremony, for all the weddings took place together. More than any action of Alexander this seemed to show a popular and comradely spirit.”
Despite Alexander’s effort, his plan failed. After his death, the officers abandoned their Persian brides, revealing how they felt about the unions.
Unlike Persepolis, which Alexander destroyed, Susa maintained its importance even after Alexander’s death and became part of the Seleucid Empire.
Why Stories Matter to Children of Immigrants
By Nazila Fathi
Feb. 1, 2020—
Children of immigrants face their own set of challenges, especially if they are of Iranian background.
A few months ago, my 16-year-old gave me a box of stuff he no longer needed. Inside were some toys, several fidget spinners, story books and old clothes. There was also a notebook on which he had scribbled a few pages.
“I am excited for my 18th birthday because I can move across the country to California or Arizona,” my son wrote at age 9.
He continued, “And I will no longer hear my mother speak Iranian. I can do anything I want and my mom cannot make me speak Iranian anymore. I look forward to my 18th birthday. I want to be away from my mother who speaks Iranian. I will be an adult!”
By Iranian, he meant Persian or Farsi. And yes, California and Arizona are far from our home in Maryland.
My son and I both laughed when I showed him the notebook. As the kid of immigrants, he had come a long way. It had started seven years ago one day when he surprised me at his new school. “My name is Shayan but please call me Jack,” he announced to the assistant principal who was showing him to his class.
I was dumbfounded.
For Children of Immigrants, a Name Is More than a Name
My daughter, Tina, who is a year younger than my son, immediately began calling her brother Jack as if the name-change also mattered to her. Perhaps as the kid of immigrants, she felt something too.
A week later, I got a call from my son’s teacher. Jack had stopped responding when anyone called him Shayan.
My husband and I debated the idea and decided not to fret over it. My son had complained several times that his friends and teachers could not pronounce his name. One boy had decided to call him Chad at his old school instead of Shayan. So, I blessed the new name. Why did the name matter if it helped my son’s immigrant identity? To show that we respected his wish, my husband and I began calling him Jack in front of his friends.
In private, however, we called him Shayan. He never objected.
But I felt like I had screwed up.
I knew there were other reasons behind my son’s identity crisis and I had failed to address as an immigrant parent.
For an entire year, we had listened to our local NPR station for a half-hour on our way to school during which there was almost a daily reference to Iran’s nuclear program. This was 2012 when the Obama administration had intensified economic sanctions on Iran. The Iranian regime, in turn, had notched up its nuclear activities, spiking fears that the country could have a nuclear bomb.
It was clear to me that both my kids wanted to distance themselves from a country that was constantly depicted as a pariah state. It was natural for them to be eager to blend in and to be like other kids. My daughter was lucky that her name, Tina (which means flower in Kurdish, an ethnic Iranian group), did not single her out as an Iranian.
For me, this was painful.
To me, Iran is more than its current regime which has sent millions of Iranians into exile. Its behavior is a source of shame and terror for many more inside and outside Iran. To me, Iran is its culture and history; it is the land of poetry, a place that nurtured Muhammad Khawrazmi, the man who invented algebra without which the Internet and the information revolution central to our children’s lives would not exist. To me Iran is the country that celebrates the rotation of the earth around the sun, the most logical constant in our lives.
I wanted my kids to be aware of that heritage. So, I resorted to the only thing I knew best as a journalist: storytelling. I wanted to show them, not tell them, that we could be proud of so much.
Research Shows Stories Provide Life Skills
As immigrants, we are shaped by our culture and history. No matter where we come from, our identity provides us with self-esteem and coping skills. Feeling positive toward our culture makes us feel more confident. As a parent, I want to nurture resilience in my kids to equip them with skills they need to overcome life challenges. The connection between culture and resilience in kids is clear. Numerous studies on indigenous people have found correlations between their positive affiliation and engagement with their culture and their mental health.
Our immigrant kids are severed from Iranian culture and history, especially if they do not travel to Iran. They study very little about the Persian civilization at public schools outside Iran. I felt like I had screwed up in filling that gap.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not against changing one’s name and I embrace my immigrant identity. I cherish the fact that I had the opportunity to live two lives and was able to give my children the good fortune to grow up in a free land. But I believe we can assimilate without self-alienation. Our Iranian culture can be our toolkit in our quest for continuity.
What Do Scholars Say?
Louise Rosenblatt, a widely known scholar of literature, said in 1938 that we understand ourselves through the lives of characters in stories.
Therefore, through stories for young children, I hope to show how Iranians have contributed to human civilization. Scientists believe storytelling is not just a childhood pastime. Stories are crucial in brain development and they stay with us throughout adulthood as a means of defining us. In fact, stories we hear as children nurture positive traits in us. Parents can help their children build a positive sense of self indirectly by sharing stories that speak of values and traditions.
Professor Andrea Breen at York University said identity is constructed through childhood stories. “Those stories both communicate who we are but also help construct our own understanding of who we are,” she said.
She believes storytelling makes a difference in child development. “Kids who come from families where there’s lots of storytelling tend to be stronger in terms of their language, relationships and emotional well-being,” says Breen.
In addition to developing children’s literacy, stories convey values, beliefs, attitudes and social norms which, in turn, shape children’s perceptions of themselves and of the world. According to Peggy Albers, Professor of Language and Literacy Education at Georgia State University, children can learn how to think and act through the characters they meet in stories.
“Stories help children develop empathy and cultivate imaginative and divergent thinking – that is, thinking that generates a range of possible ideas and/or solutions around story events, rather than looking for single or literal responses,” she said.
I hope my books reach Iranian and also non-Iranian kids. An increasing number of scholars are calling for kids to be exposed to stories of immigrants in order to change negative perceptions about them.
We live at a time when children are exposed to negative narratives about immigrants. People from certain countries and religious backgrounds are stigmatized. I would argue that the need for children to read, see, and hear global stories that counter and challenge those stereotypes is even greater than ever
