Categories
  Encyclosphere.org ENCYCLOREADER
  supported by EncyclosphereKSF

Shahbaz (bird)

From Wikipedia - Reading time: 5 min
Standard of Cyrus the Great (Derafsh Shahbaz), founder of the Achaemenid Empire, featuring the Shahbaz (see List of Iranian flags)

Shahbaz (Persian: شَهباز) is the name of a fabled bird in Persian mythology.[1] It is described as having a body similar to an eagle, being bigger than a hawk or falcon, and having inhabited an area within the Zagros, the Alborz, and the Caucasus within Greater Iran. In ancient Persian mythology, the Shahbaz was a God who helped the Iranian peoples and guided the Faravahar to the Iranian lands.

History

[edit]

The word Shahbaz literally translates to "royal falcon".[2][3][4] It was standard practice for the Persian Shah to keep a royal falcon or another bird of prey.[5] This symbol represented both strength and aggressiveness.[4] The ancient Egyptian deity of Horus is speculated[by whom?] to have been the archetype for the standard of Cyrus the Great[citation needed], who founded the Achaemenid Empire.

British explorer Richard F. Burton considered the symbol to refer to the goshawk species Accipiter gentilis.[2] Shahbaz could have alternatively referred to another common bird over the skies of the Iranian Plateau: the eastern imperial eagle, though this observation has never been claimed by historians as merited.

See also

[edit]
  • Chamrosh, a Persian mythical bird that is described as having inhabited the Alborz Mountains
  • Huma bird, a legendary bird in Persian and later cultural Islamic mythology
  • Simurgh, a mythical bird in Iranian literature

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Mark, Joshua J. (16 January 2020). "Ancient Persian Gods, Heroes, and Creatures – The Complete List". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b Burton, Sir Richard Francis (1852). Falconry in the valley of the Indus.
  3. ^ Brill, E. J. First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936.
  4. ^ a b Altmann, Peter (3 December 2019). Banned Birds: The Birds of Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-3-16-158163-2.
  5. ^ Khan, Hazrat Inayat (28 September 2020). The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan: The Smiling Forehead. Library of Alexandria. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-61310-665-5.


Stub icon

This bird-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Stub icon

This mythology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Flag of IranHourglass icon  

This Iranian history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 | Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahbaz_(bird)
13 views |
↧ Download as ZWI file
Encyclosphere.org EncycloReader is supported by the EncyclosphereKSF