ロマンスからヒストリアへ : ビーソトゥーン碑文とイランにおける歴史認識(<特集>イラン世界とその周辺地域-その形成と展開)

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概要

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• The monument of Bisotun located along the main caravan route from Babylon or Baghdad to Ecbatana/Hamadan in the west side of Iran, was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2006. The site has remains dating back from prehistoric times to the Median, Achaemenid, Sasanian, Ilkhanid, and Safavid periods. The principal monument is the cuneiform inscription and relief of Darius I (Darius the Great r. 522BC-486BC), engraved on a shallow recess in the cliff, 66m above the ground. In his time Bisotun mountain was a sacred place and Darius ordered carving his legitimacy to the throne and his triumphal wars against rebel leaders, achieved by the grace of the God. The bas-relief portrays Darius standing and overlooking nine representatives of the conquered peoples, their hands and necks tied. Gaumata, the Median Magus is seen lying under the king's feet, and the representation of the god Ahuramazda is above them. Below and around the bas-relief there are panels with cuneiform inscriptions in old Persian, Babylonian (i.e. Assyrian), and Elamite texts that refer to the story of Darius' battles. Although the site of Bisotun was initially mentioned by the Greek historian Ctesias at around 400BC as "Bagastana", meaning "place of the god(s)", in course of time the monument lost its position and was forgotten, along with the disuse of cuneiform inscriptions in Ancient Persia. The paper will trace descriptions of the Bisotun Inscription during the Islamic period, especially those in Iran, and will examine the changing importance of the Inscription within Persian historical consciousness. In the 10th century, Arabic geographers like Ibn Faqih, Ibn Rusta, Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal - most of whom were originally from Persia, referred to the site which is a steep mountain and has some mystical remains as "Behestun" (literally "good columns"), or "Bisotun" (literally "without columns"). This view of Bisotun was gradually mingled with other fine Sasanian reliefs of Taq-e Bostan, 20km from Bisotun. A romantic story, Khosrow-o-Shirin, composed by Nizami in the 12th century, created new interest in Bisotun, and its name became famous on account of a romantic scene involving Farhad and Shirin, the wife of Khosrow Parviz, who had ordered Farhad cut a road through Bisotun Mountain. It was after Sir Henry Rawlinson copied the Darius' inscription at Bisotun and deciphered the old Persian cuneiform in 1847 that the Bisotun Inscription captured the attention of the Persians. His achievement was immediately introduced to the Qajar court. A Persian geographical work published in Nasir al-Din Shah's period (r. 1848-96), mentions Rawlinson's achievement and the whole translation of the inscription in the article on Bisotun, while denying the romance of Farhad because it was not based on any historical evidence, and only on a legend. After the deciphering of the cuneiform, Persian consciousness with regard to their ancient history drastically changed. They tried to rewrite history based on a new method of historiography introduced by Western scholars, and not on their traditional and legendary chronicles.

著者

• 守川 知子

  北海道大学大学院文学研究科

関連論文

• ロマンスからヒストリアへ : ビーソトゥーン碑文とイランにおける歴史認識(イラン世界とその周辺地域-その形成と展開)
• シーア派聖地参詣の研究 : 19世紀のイラン人とアタバート(中東研究博士論文要旨)

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