From: ghbr@fmg.bt.co.uk (Hossein Bagherzadeh Rafsanjani)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.iranian
Subject: On the Iranian calendar and its base (Was Re: A Subjective Point of Reference)
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:36:54 GMT
Organization: British Telecom

In article <1993Jan20.141130.2002@netcom.com> bavafa@netcom.com (Hooshyar Naraghi) writes:

> In article <1993Jan19.192633.19603@donner.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
> zamie@zamiepcSanDiego.NCR.com (Zamie Mehraz) writes:

> >Can you or other go through that and kind of elaborate what was really
> >wrong with "Empirial or a similar calendar".  I cannot relate to such a
> >calendar that we have.  We celebrate "Nowrouz" and that is the beginning
> >of Spring.

> >Why the origin of our calendar is at time of Hejrat?

> Historically, khayyam and colleagues devised the calendar.  Now this needs
> research and since I am now 'khit shodeh' [(c) Amoojoon, 92] to be late
> for these researches, I refrain from volunteering any more.  One wonders if
> khayyam explained somewhere about the reason behind his choice of Hejrat as
> the base (I like the word base better than origin, Zamie), of course besides
> the trivial reponse that he wanted to please a Moslem khalifeh (or was this
> the only reason, I wouldn't know).

The Jalaali calendar (re-introduced by Omar Khayyam and named after
Jalaal-ol-Din Malek-shaah-e Saljuqi in late fifth century hejri) had
the sole aim of using solar system based on the ancient Iranian
calendar.  It wasn't concerned with the *base* of the calendar.

As we all know, the base of calendar in Iran (as in all areas under
the Islamic empire) used to be the migration of Mohammad (the prophet)
from Makka to Madina - a migration that proved a turning point in the
history of Islam - and by implication, in the history of Iran.

It is doubtful if at the time of Khayyam, there was a desire or a
point in changing the base of the calendar too.  All we know is that
Iran after Islam was severly cut from its past.  The reported
systematic burning of libraries by invading Islamic army also devoided
Iran of valid sources about the history of its past.

Indeed, it may be argued that even if we had a well-recorded history
before Islam, there could hardly be any point in changing the base of
the calendar.  Note that almost all calendars in different parts of
the world are based on some religious event in the past.  The
alternative for Iranian calendar, therefore, could have been an event
to do with pre-Islamic religions.  But with those religions either
extinct or commanding a small minority after Islam, the chance of it
taking place have always been non-existant.

And it matters not a bit.  Napoleon tried something to change the
calendar and failed.  The soviets even with their stronger atheistic
and anti-religious policies did not even bother.

The beauty of the Iranian solar calendar and its attractions for
Iranians is not because of Jamshid or some other mythical/historical
ancient king/emperor etc.  It is because a) it is solar (and so better
than the Arabic lunar calendar for planning etc) and b) it has a sort
of "natural"-ness in it (compared to the western calendar).  (See my
article posted earlier on the Jalaali versus Gregorian calendars for
details.)

So, it does not follow that because we adapted the Iranian solar
calendar in preference to the Arabic lunar one, we must have also
adapted an "Iranian" base for it.  And here the stpidity of the Shah's
action becomes apparant.  His stupidity was also componded by
selecting an (arbitrary) imperial event in order only to link his own
short dynasty to that of ancient Iranian empire.  He thought that in
this way he can draw legitimacy for his dynasty.  And after all, who
wanted to be reminded of 2500 (or is it 7000, 10000) years of rule by
kings and emperors like the Shah-n-Shah?

So, until there is an international agreeement on some global calendar
base which is not local, national or religious, we may as well
continue with our hejrat-based solar calendar.  Any other attempt at
its change (even if desirable) is doomed to failure.

Perhaps, the one Hooshyar is proposing is the answer - seriously!

> I declare my calendar ATG (After the Game) is no longer in effect.  The
> news from Tehran say that Iran might not play during the World Cup...

Oops, so it won't work?  What a pity...

-hossein